Crane Cams closes

It has been reported that that Crane Cams’ Daytona Beach factory has been closed down and the employees of the company laid off.

Unconfirmed reports claim that workers at the plant had been told to expect some lay-offs, but that there had been no mention of the complete closure of the facility.

Founded in 1953, Crane became employee-owned in 1979 and was acquired in 2005 by Mikronite Technologies Group, a New Jersey based industrial technology firm that had previously worked with the cam manufacturer.

It is reported that, two years into their ownership cycle, Mikronite sold the primary property on which the Crane facility was located in Daytona to STAG Capital Partners.

It is believed that a 10-year lease was then taken to keep Crane’s manufacturing facility on the site, and that in making that deal it is thought that Mikronite were able to recoup a substantial proportion of the initial outlay they made to acquire Crane.

Always primarily an automotive performance product manufacturer, from the 1980’s Crane enjoyed nearly two decades in which it was also one of the market leaders for cam and related performance upgrades for the Harley-Davidson aftermarket.

It is believed that some efforts are being made to rescue the brand and parts of the product range, but if they fail this could mark the end of the road for an icon of American performance and a business which, as recently as two years ago, employed some 200 or so people.

This entry was posted on 26/02/2009 at 02:20 pm and is filed under Engines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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