Anaheim electric vehicle maker Taylor-Dunn Corp. said it has made the first in a series of planned acquisitions as part of an expansion.
Taylor-Dunn said it recently bought Kansas City, Mo.-based Metro Crown International Inc., a supplier of parts for airline ground support equipment. Terms weren’t disclosed.
According to Taylor-Dunn Chief Executive Jim Goodwin, three other deals are in the works and are expected to conclude in the next 12 months.
“The Metro Crown acquisition is a precursor,” he said. “And each of the acquisitions has an excess of $10 million in revenues.”
Goodwin said Taylor-Dunn plans to have the next purchase,that of a Cleveland-based company,under way in November.
The Metro Crown deal and the other planned buys are part of a stepped up move by Taylor-Dunn into ground support vehicles for the military and commercial aircraft.
“All four companies are involved in making ground support vehicles for aircraft,” Goodwin said.
Taylor-Dunn did the Metro Crown acquisition first because the company plans to move current parts and distribution work from its Cleveland plant to Kansas City, a more central location, Goodwin said.
Metro Crown specializes in hard-to-find, obsolete and one-of-a-kind replacement parts.
“We have a quick response, next-flight-out parts service, which can prepare in-stock orders to be packaged and to the airport in as little as an hour,” said Metro Crown President Bob Varker.
The expansion bid means growth for Taylor-Dunn in Anaheim, according to Goodwin. One planned acquisition involves a company in the Pacific Northwest that likely will be moved to Anaheim, he said.
The company has about 250 local employees now and plans to add another 50 in the next year. The company also is looking to add around 150,000 square feet of space to its operations in Anaheim.
“We’re scouting two or three different locations in Anaheim,” Goodwin said.
The company is using Sheldon Morrison Associates in Santa Ana as its broker and is working with the city of Anaheim to locate space, Goodwin said.
Taylor-Dunn’s 170,000-square-foot production facilities on Ball Road occupy almost an entire city block between Empire and Brookhurst streets in Anaheim.
The company counts 150,000 of its vehicles in use worldwide. Regional clients include the Orange County Sanitation District, Chapman University, University of California, Irvine and Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California.
The company also supplies vehicles to the UCI Medical Center and St. Joseph’s Hospital, both in Orange.
Goodwin said the company’s main competition comes from the Augusta, Ga.-based Cushman Textron, a division of Providence, R.I.-based heavyweight Textron Inc.
Taylor-Dunn recorded $40 million in revenue last year, according to Goodwin. The company forecasts revenue for this year of about $46 million, he said. n
