The Manitowoc Company has announced its intent to relocate its crawler crane manufacturing operations from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, to Shady Grove, Pennsylvania, to optimize its manufacturing footprint, reduce costs and expand margins.
This initiative will increase operational efficiency and allow the company to reallocate resources to invest in profitable growth. The transition will begin in the third quarter with completion anticipated by the middle of 2017. In total, this initiative is expected to generate annualized pre-tax cost savings of US$25m-US$30m.
“After a comprehensive analysis and review of our current manufacturing footprint, coupled with current market conditions, we believe this restructuring initiative will ensure that our business continues to meet and exceed the needs of our customers every day,” said Barry Pennypacker (below right), president and chief executive officer, The Manitowoc Company, Inc.
“We further recognize that this will have a personal impact on people who have been dedicated to Manitowoc. We thank them for their contributions to the achievements of our business, and are committed to treating them fairly and with respect throughout this process.”
Shady Grove is a 300-acre facility with proven capability in manufacturing a broad range of product lines including its rough terrain cranes, truck cranes, boom trucks, industrial cranes and lattice boom crawler cranes.
Since 2015, Shady Grove has been producing crawler cranes with the quality and reliability customers expect. Manitowoc has made significant investments in new equipment at the Shady Grove facility to augment its capacity and capability.
This transition will optimize utilization of these assets with sufficient manufacturing capacity to support current and future crawler demand.
Manitowoc’s crawler business intends to maintain its product engineering and related support functions in the Manitowoc, Wisconsin, area. The Manitowoc Company, Inc. will maintain its headquarters in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
August 19, 2016
