Company type | Public |
---|---|
Industry | Manufacturing |
Founded | 1959[1] |
Founder | Robert Kern [2] |
Headquarters | Waukesha, Wisconsin, U.S. [3] [4] |
Key people | Aaron Jagdfeld (CEO) [3] |
Products | Generators |
Revenue | US$4.02 billion (2023) [5] |
US$386 million (2023) [5] | |
US$217 million (2023) [5] | |
Total assets | US$5.09 billion (2023) [5] |
Total equity | US$2.34 billion (2023) [5] |
Number of employees | 8,600 (2023) [5] |
Website | generac |
Generac Holdings Inc., commonly referred to as Generac (derived from a combination of generating and AC), is a Fortune 1000 American manufacturer of backup power generation products for residential, light commercial and industrial markets. [6] Generac's power systems range in output from 800 watts to 9 megawatts, [7] and are available through independent dealers, retailers and wholesalers. [6] Generac is headquartered in Waukesha, Wisconsin, [3] [4] and has manufacturing facilities in Berlin, Oshkosh, Jefferson, Eagle, and Whitewater; all in Wisconsin. [7]
Founded by Robert Kern in 1959, the company soon began producing portable generators for Sears, Roebuck and Co. under the Craftsman brand. During the 1970s, Generac expanded its offerings in the portable and recreational vehicle markets, and in the 1980s the company entered the commercial and industrial markets with its backup power generation systems. [7]
By end of the 1980s, the company was manufacturing residential, commercial and industrial generators, and in 1989, Generac introduced the first gaseous-fueled automatic home standby system. [7]
In 1992, Generac began private labeling generator sets for Caterpillar, Inc. As the partnership grew between the two companies, they discussed a potential acquisition of Generac by Caterpillar, although a deal was never finalized. In June 1996, Caterpillar decided to terminate the private labeling agreement. Generac then sued Caterpillar under the Wisconsin Fair Dealership Law ("WFDL"), the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Wisconsin common law concerning restrictive covenants, and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. [8] The federal district court, in two separate orders, disposed of the action in Caterpillar's favor. Generac then challenged the lower court's rulings in the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that Generac's claims were properly dismissed by the lower court. [9] Generac continued to supply some transfer switches to Caterpillar until 2002, when Caterpillar changed suppliers.
In 1998, Generac sold its portable products division to the Beacon group, a private equity firm, who later sold it to Briggs & Stratton Corporation. Upon expiration of a non-compete agreement related to the sale in 2007, Generac re-entered the portable generator market in 2008. [7]
In late 2006, Generac was purchased by CCMP Capital of New York. [7] In 2009 CCMP took a write-off, described as a non-cash goodwill and trade name impairment charge, of $583.5 million against their purchase of Generac. [10] Aaron Jagdfeld was appointed president and chief executive officer in September, 2008 and is the current CEO. [7]
On February 11, 2010, Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNRC), parent company of Generac Power Systems, Inc., began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GNRC. [7] The initial public offering provided $224 million in net proceeds, which were used to pay down debt. [7]
Generac is a recipient of Milwaukee Magazine’s “Best Places to Work” award for Southeastern Wisconsin. [11]
Generac's industrial sizing application, Power Design Pro, received silver in the 2010 Plant Engineering "Product of the Year" award. [12]
The company has also earned the Good Housekeeping Seal for its Guardian Series home standby generators and several portable generators. [13]
Generac was honored with the 2014 Natural Gas Generator Company of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan for its contribution to the North American natural gas generator set industry. [14]
Generac manufactures gasoline-fueled, diesel-fueled and bi-fuel engine-driven power generation equipment, modular paralleling systems, automatic transfer switches and small engines. [6] The company supplies products to the industrial, commercial, and portable generator markets through many different distributors.
In December 2009, Generac introduced Generac Industrial Power (a rebranding of its industrial products division) to include new engines, new enclosures, ergonomic changes and aesthetic changes. This included a partnership with Fiat Powertrain Technologies to supply Generac with industrial diesel engines for use in industrial generators. [15]
Iveco S.p.A., an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company with headquarters in Turin, Italy. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy commercial vehicles. The name IVECO first appeared in 1975 after a merger of Italian, French, and German brands. Its production plants are in Europe, China, Russia, Australia and Latin America and it has about 5,000 sales and service outlets in over 160 countries. The worldwide output of the company amounts to around 150,000 commercial vehicles with a turnover of about €10 billion.
Kohler Co., founded in 1873 by John Michael Kohler, is an American manufacturing company based in Kohler, Wisconsin. Kohler is best known for its plumbing products, but the company also manufactures furniture, cabinetry, tile, engines, and generators. Destination Kohler also owns various hospitality establishments in the United States and Scotland. In February 2017, Kohler Co. acquired UK-based Clarke Energy from the management team and ECI Partners, a multinational specialist in the engineering, construction, installation, and maintenance of engine-based power plants and is an authorized distributor of GE's reciprocating engines in 19 countries worldwide. In November 2023, it was announcing that Kohler is establishing the Energy group independently and would be bought in a complex partnership with private equity group Platinum Equity, the deal is slated to close in Q1 2024.
Caterpillar Inc., also known as Cat, is an American construction, mining and other engineering equipment manufacturer. The company is the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment. In 2018, Caterpillar was ranked number 73 on the Fortune 500 list and number 265 on the Global Fortune 500 list. Caterpillar stock is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Komatsu Ltd. or Komatsu (コマツ) is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures construction, mining, forestry and military equipment, as well as diesel engines and industrial equipment like press machines, lasers and thermoelectric generators. Its headquarters are in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The corporation was named after the city of Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, where the company was founded in 1921. Worldwide, the Komatsu Group consists of Komatsu Ltd. and 258 other companies.
Cummins Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and distributes engines, filtration, and power generation products. Cummins also services engines and related equipment, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission control, electrical power generation systems, and trucks.
Briggs & Stratton Corporation is an American manufacturer of small engines with headquarters in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
Allis-Chalmers was a U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various industries. Its business lines included agricultural equipment, construction equipment, power generation and power transmission equipment, and machinery for use in industrial settings such as factories, flour mills, sawmills, textile mills, steel mills, refineries, mines, and ore mills.
Linde plc is a global multinational chemical company founded in Germany and, since 2018, domiciled in Ireland and headquartered in the United Kingdom. Linde is the world's largest industrial gas company by market share and revenue. It serves customers in the healthcare, petroleum refining, manufacturing, food, beverage carbonation, fiber-optics, steel making, aerospace, material handling equipment (MHE), chemicals, electronics and water treatment industries. The company's primary business is the manufacturing and distribution of atmospheric gases, including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, rare gases, and process gases, including carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen, ammonia, electronic gases, specialty gases, and acetylene.
Electro-Motive Diesel is a brand of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. Formerly a division of General Motors, EMD has been owned by Progress Rail since 2010. Electro-Motive Diesel traces its roots to the Electro-Motive Engineering Corporation, founded in 1922 and purchased by General Motors in 1930. After purchase by GM, the company was known as GM's Electro-Motive Division. In 2005, GM sold EMD to Greenbriar Equity Group and Berkshire Partners, and in 2010, EMD was sold to Progress Rail, a subsidiary of the American heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar. Upon the 2005 sale, the company was renamed to Electro-Motive Diesel.
A gas engine is an internal combustion engine that runs on a fuel gas, such as coal gas, producer gas, biogas, landfill gas, natural gas or hydrogen. In the United Kingdom and British English-speaking countries, the term is unambiguous. In the United States, due to the widespread use of "gas" as an abbreviation for gasoline (petrol), such an engine is sometimes called by a clarifying term, such as gaseous-fueled engine or natural gas engine.
Waukesha is a brand of large stationary reciprocating engines produced by INNIO Waukesha Gas Engines, a business unit of the INNIO Group. It builds large gas engines and related industrial equipment for natural gas compression and for power generation.
The Caterpillar 797 is a series of off-highway, ultra class, two-axle, mechanical powertrain haul trucks developed and manufactured in the United States by Caterpillar Inc. specifically for high-production mining and heavy construction applications worldwide. In production since 1998, the 797 series represents Caterpillar’s largest, highest capacity haul trucks. The current, third-generation model, the 797F, offers one of the largest haul truck payload capacities in the world, up to 400 short tons (363 t) and has the highest payload capacity among mechanical drive haul trucks.
An engine–generator is the combination of an electrical generator and an engine mounted together to form a single piece of equipment. This combination is also called an engine–generator set or a gen-set. In many contexts, the engine is taken for granted and the combined unit is simply called a generator. An engine–generator may be a fixed installation, part of a vehicle, or made small enough to be portable.
GAZ Group is a Russian automotive conglomerate headquartered in Nizhny Novgorod. It comprises 18 manufacturing facilities in eight regions of Russia, as well as sales and service organizations.
Cummins UK is a diesel engine manufacturer and the Cummins US distributor for the UK and Ireland. Cummins Inc. is a corporation of complementary business units that design, manufacture, distribute and service engines and related technologies, including fuel systems, controls, air handling, filtration, emission solutions and electrical power generation systems. Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana, (US) Cummins serves customers in approximately 190 countries and territories through a network of more than 500 company-owned and independent distributor locations and approximately 5,200 dealer locations.
Solar Turbines Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., designs and manufactures industrial gas turbines for onshore and offshore electrical power generation, for marine propulsion and for producing, processing and transporting natural gas and oil.
Subaru Industrial Power Products was the brand name for products manufactured by the Industrial Products division of Subaru Corporation, which were previously sold under the Robin, Robin-Subaru and Wisconsin Robin brand. The line was sold under the Subaru brand, used by Subaru's automobiles for greater brand recognition. Subaru decided to close down the Industrial business to focus on the car business, selling Subaru power to Yamaha.
Perkins Engines Company Limited, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc. since 1998, is primarily a diesel engine manufacturer for several markets including agricultural, construction, material handling, power generation, and industrial. It was established in Peterborough, England in 1932. Over the years, Perkins has expanded its engine catalogue, producing thousands of different engine specifications including diesel and petrol engine automatives.
Worldwide Power Products, LLC is an American supplier of temporary power generation equipment. The company primarily retails Caterpillar and Cummins equipment, but also offers Detroit Diesel and Kohler brands, among others. The company offers generator sets from 10 to 2,500 kW and engines from 150 to 4,000 hp.
The Caterpillar C32 is a V12 diesel engine made by Caterpillar Inc. The engine displacement is 32.1 liters. The cylinder size is 5.71 inches x 6.38 inches bore/stroke. The engine can produce up to 1900 horsepower at 2300 rpm. The peak torque of 5532 lb-ft occurs at an engine speed of 1300 to 1800 RPM. The engine weighs over three tons at 6780 pounds. The C32 is used in CAT equipment including the 777G mining truck and the D11T bulldozer. It is also sold for use in rail and marine applications, and for other industrial applications such as crushers, pumps, and drills.