RDS TECHNOLOGY, the Stroud-based company which manufactures instrumentation for the agriculture and mobile machinery industry, has been bought by US company Digi-Star LLC . No financial details of the acquisition have been announced.

From its origins in the late 60's, when RDS pioneered the use of electronics for agriculture with the introduction of the grain loss monitor for combine harvesters, the company has expanded its activities into many other sectors of mobile machinery.  RDS supplies over 100 Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) world-wide with Custom Solutions, as well as supplying standard 'retro-fit' products through a network of specialist independent distributors in over 20 countries.

The company was founded in 1969 by Jim Brown, who took a back-seat during the 1990s (he passed away in 2001). Today it has an annual turnover in excess of £8 million and employs 70 people. RDS and its management team will continue to be based in Stroud.

More than 80 per cent of its production is exported and, in recent years, it has seen significant growth with sales in 2011 40% up on the previous year and 30% up in the current year so far over 2011.

In July this year, the company won the Diamond Jubilee Business of the Year Award at the Stroud Life Business Awards

Richard Danby, RDS Technology's managing director, said: "This combination of two leading companies in the precision measurement industry will offer great opportunities for new systems for those progressive companies looking to bring the type of equipment interfaces that will optimise productivity."

Digi-Star, a portfolio company of Baird Capital Partners is based at Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. Grant Ihrke, Digi-Star's president, added: "RDS and Digi-Star have numerous synergies with electronics and sensors for the agricultural and industrial markets that will complement each other's customers. Both companies will benefit from the expanded product lines and total integrated solutions for their international customers with scales and controls needs."