Company type | Public |
---|---|
Industry | Automotive parts, machine tools, construction materials |
Predecessors | Houdaille-Hershey Corporation Houde Engineering Corporation |
Founded | January 19, 1919 in Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
Defunct | September 1987 |
Successor | TI Group IDEX Corporation |
Key people | A.B. Shultz Claire L. Barnes Ralph Peo Gerald C. Saltarelli Donald N. Boyce |
Number of employees | 9,000 (1977) |
Houdaille Industries was a diversified manufacturing company which produced automotive products, industrial products, machine tools, construction materials and contracting. The company had its beginnings in Buffalo, New York, in 1919, where the Houde Engineering Corporation manufactured shock absorbers that had been invented and patented in France by Maurice Houdaille (1880-1953). [1] The company continued to grow with the automobile industry, and through diversification, until 1987 when it was forced to liquidate most of its assets to satisfy obligations to investors from a 1979 leveraged buy out. [2]
On March 1, 1909, French engineer and inventor Maurice Houdaille (1880–1953) filed for a patent for a shock absorbing apparatus. U.S. patent 933,076 was granted 7 September 1909. In 1915, French born import specialist Paul Victor Clodio (1882-1928), acquired the rights, from Maurice Houdaille, to manufacture and sell the Houdaille shock absorber in the United States. Clodio founded the Houdaille Shock Absorber Co., Inc. in New York City. [3]
On January 27, 1919, Buffalo, NY automotive engineer Albert B. Shultz (1877–1932), and his brother, B. David Schultz, a Rolls-Royce dealer, [4] filed articles of incorporation for the Houde Engineering Corporation with New York State. [5] The name Houde was an attempt to anglicize Houdaille. [6] Houde acquired manufacturing and selling rights for the Houdaille shock absorber from importer Clodio. Clodio retained the selling rights for the New York City area. In 1925 Houde acquired the New York Houdaille Company and moved manufacturing operations from 1400 West Avenue, Buffalo, to a newly constructed plant at 533-537 East Delavan Avenue, Buffalo, to facilitate its growth.
In 1927, the patents were purchased from the original French owners and Houde became the sole manufacturer and distributor of the Houdaille designed shock absorber in the United States. The following October, Henry Ford wrote to Shultz and told him that if Houde would hire then 30 year old mechanical engineer Ralph Peo to supervise production at the plant, then Ford would purchase Houdaille shocks for all of the new Ford automobiles. [7] [8] Production of shock absorbers doubled.
In late September, 1928, Shultz sold Houde to Frederick B. Cooley and a small syndicate of investors for $4.3 million. Two months later Cooley and his investors sold Houde to Claire L. Barnes for $6 million. [9]
Detroit industrialist Claire L. Barnes (1880-1947) created the Houdaille Corporation of Michigan in 1928 to acquire Houde Engineering from Cooley. On January 30, 1929, Barnes consolidated his new organization with two other companies, Oakes Products and Hershey Manufacturing, both involved in manufacturing products for the automobile industry, renaming it Houdaille-Hershey Corporation with its headquarters in Detroit. The Oakes Products Company, of Indianapolis, had been incorporated in Indiana in 1912 and manufactured spare wheel and tire locks, door locks, cooling fans, air cleaners and carburetors. In 1919 Hershey Manufacturing Company was organized in Colorado. Hershey manufactured ignition and steering wheel locks with plants in Chicago and Detroit. [1] [10]
After Barnes created the Houdaille-Hershey Corporation it became one of the country's largest suppliers of automobile parts to the Detroit manufacturers. In August 1929, Schultz resigned as president of the company and Ralph Peo was named vice president and general manager of the Houde Engineering Division of Houdaille-Hershey Corporation. [11]
The company continued its acquisition of other automobile related manufactures The Skinner Company, Ltd of Gananoque, Ontario, which manufactured auto bumpers; Muskegon Motors Specialties, which made crankshafts and camshafts; Biflex Products Corporation, bumpers; Lion Cover Company, metal tire covers; and General Bumper Corporation, one of the world's largest manufacturers of spring bumpers for automobiles. The company had plants in Buffalo, New York, Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, Muskegon, Michigan, Decatur, Illinois and Gananoque and Oshawa, Canada, and was being considered for acquisition by both Ford and GM. [12]
In November 1932, the New York Stock Exchange approved the listing of its class A common stock on the exchange. [13]
In June 1937, Charles Getler was elected president of the company and Barnes became chairman of the board, Ralph Peo was chosen as vice-president. Barnes retired in 1940.
Houdaille continued growth through acquisition and when the U.S. entered WWII the company retooled many of its production facilities for the war effort. Houdaille's Garfield bumper plant in Decatur, Illinois contracted with the Top Secret Manhattan Project to nickel plate large pipes to be used to build the Atomic Bomb at the K-25 plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. [14] [15] [16]
After the war, Houdaille bought a plant in Huntington, West Virginia and retooled it to manufacture automobile bumpers. It became the world's largest bumper producer. [17]
In March 1946, Peo, then executive vice president, resigned to form Frontier Industries, Inc. As head of Frontier, Peo acquired Manzel Brothers Oil Pump Company, Fairmount Tool & Forging, Inc., of Cleveland, Ohio, the Buffalo Arms plant, and Buffalo Crushed Stone Coorporation.
Houdaille-Hershey's business was primarily in the automobile industry. Seeking to divisify to other industries, in 1955, Houdaille acquired Frontier through a merger and Ralph Peo became president of Houdaille-Hershey. [18] Peo moved the corporate headquarters from Detroit to Buffalo and the name was changed to Houdaille Industries, Inc. [1]
Under Peo's leadership the company acquired North Jersey Quarry Co., Commonwealth Concrete Company, Wales-Strippit Co., Gravel Products Corporation, Provincial Engineering, Ltd, Buffalo Eclipse Corporation, S.M. Jones, Eclipse Lawn Mower, Penberthy Manufacturing Co., R.H. Wright & Sons, Inc., Broward Asphalt Corporation, and Duval Engineering and Contracting. By the end of 1961 Peo had developed Houdaille into a national business leader in the construction materials, automotive parts, and industrial tools & machinery industries with over $80 million in annual sales, over 60 business locations in the United States and Canada and 9,783 shareholders. [19]
Peo retired as CEO in 1962 and continued as Chairman of the Board until 1964, when he became Chairman Emeritus. Fifty year old Gerald C. Saltarelli was elected president. He had joined the company in 1941 as corporate attorney and served in a wide variety of executive positions through the years. [1]
Saltarelli continued the growth pattern established by Peo. He purchased Morris Crane & Hoist, Deerfield Rock, Di-Arco, Burgmaster Corporation, [20] Powermatic Machine Company, Trabon Engineering, U.S.Burke Machine Tool Co, Viking Pump, June Prestressors, Inc., Warren Pump, Band-It Company, and Fort Worth Steel and Machine Company.
By 1977 the company had over 9,000 employees in five product groups and 18 subsidiary companies. Saltarelli, exasperated with the corporate tax structure in New York State, moved the company headquarters to Florida. [21] The company's cash rich and debt free balance sheet made it an attractive candidate for a take over.
In the winter of 1978 Houdaille's stock was selling at $14.50 per share, well below book value, and Saltarelli was looking for a way to retire. Along came Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. with a proposal for the company to undergo a leveraged buy out. The proposal was accepted and the company was taken private at $40 per share. At that time it was the first public company taken private and at $355 million, that largest LBO ever. [22] Saltarelli walked away with a retirement package, $5 million and no hostile takeover. [23]
After the LBO closed in May 1979, Phillip A. O'Reilly became president & CEO and Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. was chairman of the private company. The company continued its acquisitions, buying the John Crane Company for $204 million and taking a 49% stake in the UK based Crane Packaging, followed by Warren Rupp for $25 million.
With the heavy debt created by the LBO, the Early 1980s recession, and Japanese competition in the machine tool manufacturing industry, profits disappeared. The company petitioned President Reagan for relief from the Japanese imports but the request was rejected. With no help from Washington, the company underwent a restructuring plan. Seven divisions were split off and it sold the Burgmaster division at auction in January 1986 to raise cash to reduce its debt. A year later it underwent another LBO to pay off the original LBO investors and KKR forced O'Reilly to retire. Donald N. Boyce became CEO and the company headquarters was moved to Northbrook, Illinois. [2]
In 1987 KKR sold the remaining assets of Houdaille to the TI Group of London. TI kept the John Crane Division and sold six other division to a KKR created new company IDEX Corporation. [24]
The name Houdaille was gone from the American business scene.
A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy which is then dissipated. Most shock absorbers are a form of dashpot.
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana, with a building at 1600 Broadway, Times Square, Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a coachbuilder, manufacturing wagons, buggies, carriages and harnesses.
A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All machine tools have some means of constraining the workpiece and provide a guided movement of the parts of the machine. Thus, the relative movement between the workpiece and the cutting tool is controlled or constrained by the machine to at least some extent, rather than being entirely "offhand" or "freehand". It is a power-driven metal cutting machine which assists in managing the needed relative motion between cutting tool and the job that changes the size and shape of the job material.
The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and various supplier companies, the company was immediately the country's largest aviation firm and built more than 142,000 aircraft engines for the U.S. military during World War II.
Oneida Limited is an American manufacturer and seller of tableware and cutlery. Oneida is one of the world's largest designers and sellers of stainless steel and silverplated cutlery and tableware for the consumer and foodservice industries. It is also the largest supplier of dinnerware to the foodservice industry in North America. The company operates in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Asia, marketing and distributing tabletop products, which include flatware, dinnerware, crystal stemware, glassware and kitchen tools and gadgets. The factory in upstate NY was sold to Liberty Tabletop, who is the sole manufacturer of US made flatware. The company originated in the late-nineteenth century in the Oneida Community in Oneida, New York.
Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. was an American conglomerate. The company originally focused on manufacturing and resource extraction, but it began purchasing a number of entertainment companies beginning in 1966 and continuing through the 1970s. Most notable among the acquisitions were film studio Paramount Pictures in 1966, television studio Desilu Productions in 1967, arcade and later videogame manufacturer Sega in 1969, book publisher Simon & Schuster in 1975, and a number of music labels including Dot Records. Some of these properties were reorganized under the Paramount brand, with Dot Records becoming the nucleus of Paramount Records and Desilu being renamed Paramount Television.
The Brass Era is an American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such features as lights and radiators. It is generally considered to encompass 1896 through 1915, a time when cars were often referred to as horseless carriages.
Tenneco is an automotive components original equipment manufacturer and an aftermarket ride control and emissions products manufacturer. It is a Fortune 500 company that was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since November 1999 until it was taken private in November 2022 by Apollo Global Management. Tenneco is headquartered in Northville, Michigan.
MTD Products is an American manufacturer of outdoor power equipment for the mass market. Headquartered in Valley City, Ohio, the company began in 1932 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stanley Black & Decker. Prior to Stanley Black & Decker's acquisition in December 2021, MTD Products was a majority family-owned, private company. It originated as a tool and die maker. MTD's main competitors are Stihl, Ariens, Briggs & Stratton, John Deere and Husqvarna.
TI Group plc was a holding company for specialised engineering companies. It was based in Abingdon, Oxfordshire and was listed on the London Stock Exchange, at one point being a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Zimmer Motor Cars was a manufacturer of neo-classic automobiles. The company was originally incorporated in Ohio in July 1980 as the Zimmer Motor Cars Corporation. In August 1980, it was registered as a Foreign For Profit Corporation in the State of Florida under file number 846776. The company was a subsidiary of the Zimmer Corporation, then based in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Gates Industrial Corporation plc, based in Denver, Colorado, is a manufacturer of power transmission belts and fluid power products, which are used in diverse industrial and automotive applications. The company employs over 15,000 and has sales and manufacturing operations in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East.
Frederick James Skinner was an Ontario manufacturer and political figure, who represented Leeds in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Conservative member from 1926 until his death in 1933.
IDEX Corporation, based in Northbrook, Illinois, is a publicly traded company engaged in the development, design, and manufacture of fluidics systems, optics systems, fire and rescue equipment, and other specialty engineered products.
Biflex Products Corporation was a Winnetka, Illinois based manufacturer of automobile bumpers. In July 1923 the company was listed as a co-conspirator with American Chain Company of New York City in an effort to restrain trade and restrict interstate commerce. A lawsuit in United States Federal Court sought to prevent American Chain Company from acquiring a monopoly in the sales of automobile bumpers. The effort to restrain trade began prior to January 1, 1920
Upstate New York has been the setting for inventions and businesses of international significance. The abundance of water power and the advent of canal and rail transportation provided nineteenth century upstate New York entrepreneurs with the means to power factories and send their products to market. In the twentieth century, hydroelectric power and the New York State Thruway served the same roles. In April 2021, GlobalFoundries, a company specializing in the semiconductor industry, moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley, California to its most advanced semiconductor-chip manufacturing facility in Saratoga County, New York near a section of the Adirondack Northway, in Malta, New York.
NTN Corporation is one of the most prominent manufacturers of bearings in Japan, second domestically only to NSK Ltd. The company is one of the largest exporters worldwide of friction-reducing products such as constant-velocity joints.
A machine tool builder is a corporation or person that builds machine tools, usually for sale to manufacturers, who use them to manufacture products. A machine tool builder runs a machine factory, which is part of the machine industry.
KYB Corporation is a Japanese, Tokyo-based automotive company.
Ralph Frederick Peo was an American inventor, engineer, business executive in the automobile industry, and the holder of 150 patents. He was founder of Frontier Industries in Buffalo, New York and was CEO of Houdaille Industries from 1955 to 1962 and chairman of the board from 1956 to 1964. A pioneer in the development of the automobile shock absorber, Peo invented the first thermostatically controlled shock absorber. He also invented one of the earliest air conditioners for use in automobiles.