Roshel, the Brampton, Ontario-based armoured vehicle manufacturer, has closed its acquisition of Centigon, whose vehicle-armouring operations span France, Mexico and Colombia. The two companies confirmed that the transaction had closed in a joint announcement dated 2 October from Brampton and Lamballe, France.

Governments can commit to security and defence, Roshel Chief Executive Officer Roman Shimonov said, but “it takes industry to deliver on them”. In a separate LinkedIn post, he identified Centigon France SAS, Centigon México and Centigon Glass as the businesses entering Roshel Group.

The announcement discloses neither the purchase price nor the seller, and gives no figure for employees transferring.

Roshel said the acquisition pairs its Canadian armoured vehicle manufacturing with Centigon’s capabilities in civilian armoured and law enforcement vehicles, heavy-duty truck cabs, ballistic glass and protection engineering.

Centigon traces its origins back to a coachbuilding business founded in 1876. Its government, security, military and commercial customers buy products ranging from discreetly armoured civilian vehicles to truck cabs for European armed forces and protection for presidential fleets.

In France, the company designs and builds armoured cabs for heavy military trucks and converts vehicles to customer specifications.

The Colombian operation manufactures its own ballistic glass for vehicles and buildings. The Mexican operation builds armoured civilian, cash-transport and tactical vehicles for customers throughout the region.

According to Roshel, the group’s combined operations now cover raw materials, protection components and complete armoured vehicles. Centigon’s French ballistic range and laboratory is to serve as a shared engineering resource for work on armour materials and protection concepts.

Roshel designs and builds protected and special-purpose vehicles in Canada for defence, security and emergency-response users. The company’s range includes mission variants for counter-uncrewed-aircraft systems, medical evacuation and emergency response.

The businesses in Mexico and Colombia provide an established Latin American presence, in a region that the joint announcement describes as one of the world’s largest armoured vehicle markets.

The companies linked the acquisition to Security Action for Europe (SAFE), the European Union’s instrument for common defence procurement, under which Canada became the first non-European country to conclude a participation agreement. The joint announcement says that agreement gives Canadian companies access to European defence procurement on nearly the same footing as European firms.

The acquisition comes after other European business that Roshel has pursued in 2026. At June’s Eurosatory exhibition in Paris, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Daimler Truck to jointly develop, produce, market and support a family of protected and armoured military vehicles. The planned collaboration draws on truck platforms that include the Zetros, Unimog and Arocs.

Later in June, a competitive process selected Roshel to provide more than 100 Canadian-built armoured vehicles to the National Army of the Republic of Moldova. The European Peace Facility funds the purchase, which the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments facilitated.

Roshel also said in that announcement that more than 2,500 of its vehicles have been deployed in Ukraine.

Combining Canadian manufacturing with an established French industrial base provides a platform for joint development, coordinated production and eligible SAFE-supported procurement, Roshel said. The group’s aims include stronger supply chains, shared engineering and faster in-service customer support.

Related coverage: Other land-systems capacity added in Canada this autumn includes Rheinmetall Canada’s ground-systems expansion in Quebec. Further Canadian suppliers are listed in the Anvil North supplier directory.