Colorado Company Acquires Fort Wayne, Ind., Aerial Lifts Maker
Published in: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Date: 2/11/1999
By: Lipp, Linda
Feb. 10 — FORT WAYNE, Ind. — TECO Inc., a Fort Wayne-based manufacturer of aerial lifts and digger derricks, has been acquired by Mobile Tool International.
MTI is a Westminster, Colo., company that also has operations in Fort Wayne.
For tax reasons, the purchase of the privately held TECO, completed Tuesday, was structured as an assets sale, Van Walbridge, president of MTI, said. The new business entity, MTI Insulated Products Inc., will be a wholly owned subsidiary of MTI.
Nationwide, TECO employs 230 people, about 200 of whom work in Fort Wayne. MTI plans to operate TECO’s facilities in Fort Wayne; Birmingham, Ala.; and Honeybrook, Pa.; and intends to move production of some electrical utility products from its Westminster headquarters to Fort Wayne.
No job cuts are expected here because of the acquisition, “and as a matter of fact, over the next few years we expect that operation to grow, providing new opportunities for current employees and some new jobs,” Walbridge said Tuesday.
MTI has had its own manufacturing plant in Fort Wayne since 1989. The plant, which employs 27 people, assembles lifts for the telecommunications market. There are no immediate plans to combine that operation with TECO’s operation.
Workers at MTI’s Fort Wayne location are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. TECO is not unionized.
MTI expects the acquisition to result in significant economies of scale that will help boost the company’s growth with a broader product line and competitive pricing. MTI will benefit in the areas of product expansion, facility locations and state-of-the- art materials fabrication, especially relating to fiberglass products, according to a written statement from MTI .
MTI, which employs 650, was founded in 1971 as the General Cable Apparatus Division of Penn Central. It was purchased by employees in 1995 in a leveraged buyout and has annual sales in excess of $100 million. TECO employees will receive the same stock and profit-sharing benefits as MTI, said Walbridge.
COPYRIGHT 1999 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News