Multi Parts Solutions Buys HKX and Enters Construction Equipment

The Florida group takes over a Washington state maker of auxiliary hydraulic kits, whose real asset is knowing how to add controls to machines that no longer have mechanical ones

Multi Parts Solutions, a parts group based in Jupiter, Florida, has acquired HKX, a manufacturer of auxiliary hydraulic kits and control system solutions for excavators, based in Monroe, Washington state. The deal moves MPS into construction equipment and makes HKX its third division, alongside ACC Heavy Duty for commercial vehicles and MPS Automotive for the car aftermarket. Terms were not disclosed.

That matters because of what HKX actually sells. Its kits are what let an excavator run a breaker, a thumb, shears or a rotating attachment: the plumbing and the switches between a machine and the tool that earns money on it.

Why controls, not hoses

The company has been doing this since 1993, and the release is candid about where its advantage now sits. As excavators moved from mechanical pilot controls to electro-hydraulic and CAN-based systems, adding a circuit stopped being a plumbing job. HKX developed the ability to add or augment controls inside the machine’s own electronics, so an upgraded excavator works normally and without throwing error codes.

Anyone who has retrofitted a modern machine knows why that sentence matters. A kit that works but leaves a fault light on the dash is a kit that comes back.

The other stated strength is lead time: install-ready kits delivered in days rather than weeks or months, which for a dealer preparing a machine for handover is often the difference between fitting an attachment circuit and telling the customer to wait.

What changes, and what does not

For dealers, equipment owners and OEMs, MPS says the day-to-day experience stays the same. HKX keeps operating from Monroe, with its in-house fabrication, CNC tube bending, kitting and application engineering, and Robert Burnett and the existing leadership continue to run the division.

“HKX is an engineered-solutions business, which is exactly what Multi Parts Solutions is across every market we serve,” said Brian Cohn, CEO of MPS. “Our focus is straightforward: invest in HKX so the team can develop more products, support more customers and scale what already makes the business great.”

What HKX gains is scale behind it: MPS brings engineering, sourcing, testing, manufacturing and quality capability, plus its own development process.

The wider read

The interesting part is directional. A group whose business is commercial vehicle and automotive parts has decided that attachment integration on construction machines is a market worth entering, and has bought expertise rather than building it.

That is a reasonable bet on where value sits in the aftermarket. As machines get more electronically closed, the ability to modify one without breaking it becomes scarcer, and therefore worth more, than the hardware in the box.