Taylor-Dunn Makes Another in String of Strategic Acquisitions
By CHRIS CZIBORR
Anaheim electric vehicle maker Taylor-Dunn Corp. has bought another company,a maker of air cargo handling vehicles.
Taylor-Dunn acquired Lee’s Summit, Mo.-based Tiger Manufacturing Corp. earlier this month. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Tiger counts some $10 million in yearly revenue and 67 workers, according to Taylor-Dunn Chief Executive Jim Goodwin.
Taylor-Dunn doesn’t plan to move any of Tiger’s operations to Anaheim, Goodwin said.
“I’m going to keep it where it’s at right now,” he said. “I’m not centrally headquartered, so I’m at a logistical disadvantage for my Eastern seaboard customers.”
The company now counts six subsidiaries and is looking for more, Goodwin said.
“We have three more companies that we’re in negotiations with,” he said. “One of those we already have a signed letter of intent with.”
Taylor-Dunn has been on a tear in the past year, buying companies to step up its move into ground support vehicles for military and commercial aircraft.
Earlier this year, Taylor-Dunn bought Twinsburg, Ohio-based industrial tow tractor and aircraft ground support equipment maker United Tractor Corp.
The deal was the latest in a series of buys that started last year when Taylor-Dunn bought Kansas City, Mo.-based Metro Crown International Inc., a maker of replacement parts for ground support vehicles.
“The Metro Crown acquisition was a precursor,” Goodwin said. “And each of the acquisitions has in excess of $10 million in revenue.”
Taylor-Dunn’s sales last year were $50 million, Goodwin said. This year, the company expects to bring in about $65 million in revenue, he said.
Last year, Taylor-Dunn won a three-year contract worth about $10 million to build industrial-use electric vehicles for General Motors Corp.
Taylor-Dunn’s 170,000-square-foot production facilities occupy almost an entire city block between Empire and Brookhurst streets in Anaheim. The company counts about 150,000 of its vehicles in use.
Goodwin earlier this year said he was scrapping plans to expand the Anaheim facility because of fears about rising workers’ compensation costs in the state.
“It’s a combination of labor environment and there’s a lot of legislation in Sacramento right now that is not manufacturing friendly,” he said.
Goodwin said he had originally planned to move workers from acquired companies to Anaheim.
Regional Taylor-Goodwin clients include the Orange County Sanitation District, Chapman University in Orange and the University of California at Irvine.
Taylor-Dunn’s main competition comes from Cushman Textron, part of Providence, R.I.-based Textron Inc.
