Crane Co.

Our Credo: We strive for a dominant presence in niche markets. We generate solid rates of return on invested capital and high levels of cash flow. We use our cash flow effectively to grow and strengthen our existing businesses, and to acquire new businesses. We acquire businesses that fit with our existing businesses and strengthen our position in niche markets. We maintain an incentive compensation plan specifically designed to align the interests of management and shareholders. We do this with one goal in mind: To build shareholder value. Crane Co. is a diversified manufacturer of engineered industrial products, serving niche markets in fluid handling, aerospace, recreational vehicles and trucks, controls, automated merchandising, and the construction industry. Crane's wholesale distribution business provides the building products markets and industrial customers with millwork, windows, doors and related products, plumbing supplies, valves and piping, and fittings. From its inception in 1855 as a crude bell and brass foundry run singlehandedly by its founder, Richard Teller Crane, the company grew into an S&P 500 firm with international subsidiaries that generate more than $2 billion of sales in fields ranging from heating to wastewater treatment to aerospace to vending machines. Richard Crane built a 14-by-24 foot wooden shed and secured patterns and brass for couplings and copper for lightning rod tips. The sand that he had turned up excavating the furnace served as raw material for molding. After nearly a year as the sole employee--molder, furnace tender, metal pourer, casting cleaner, and salesman--Crane hired two experts from Brooklyn and started a partnership with his brother, Charles, changing the shop name to R.T. Crane and Brother. Markets quickly expanded beyond Chicago to Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Iowa. The first substantial order came from P.W. Gates & Co., a Chicago manufacturer of mill equipment and freight cars. Gates's supplier had run out of copper and could not fill an urgent order for journal boxes, the metal containers installed on railroad cars to lubricate axles. After delivering the castings on schedule, Crane won the confidence of Gates & Co. and eventually received all future orders for brass castings. Following their first big order, the Crane brothers moved to rapidly expand operations and diversify product lines. After building a three-story structure and upgrading production facilities, they began production of engine parts for the emerging railroad business, as well as plumbing and fixtures for new developments in steam power, called "steam warming" at the time. In order to fill a $6,000 contract to supply the new Cook County Court House in Chicago with steam heating, Crane designed and manufactured a wide variety of globe and check valves, pipe fittings, steam cocks, branch tees, and hook plates. Their success won the company a similar contract for the newly constructed Illinois State Penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois, which, in turn, won them further credibility and sustained business in the provision of steam heating supplies. With the onset of the Civil War, the company also became a major government supplier of fittings for saddlery, brass fittings, plates, knobs, spurs, and wagon equipment. By 1865 the Crane brothers completed construction of an industrial-size factory on Jefferson Street, which enabled them to expand all facets of business operations and manufacture a full line of valves in materials ranging from cast iron to malleable iron and brass. That same year, the company was incorporated and renamed the Northwestern Manufacturing Company, reflecting its broadening interests. In 1866 the company printed its first catalog, which contained products as diverse as fire hydrants, ventilating fans, machine tools, water pumps, bung bushings for beer barrels, and steam engines. The advent of the Bessemer smelting process for iron brought low-cost steel to the United States, further ass