Graham Engineering Corporation integration of Rhode Island operations to Pennsylvania ahead of plan

February 17, 2016

The company begins 2016 with a healthy roster of new equipment orders & systems projects

Graham Engineering Corporation today announced that it achieved record fourth quarter shipments and met all customer obligations throughout the transfer of its Ashaway, Rhode Island operations and American Kuhne brand into its York, Pennsylvania location. The project has concluded two months ahead of its original plan.

“Ongoing growth in our extrusion business caused us to outgrow the Ashaway facility, which previously housed our extruder assembly,” explained David Schroeder, CEO. He noted that increasing market share, in accordance with the company’s strategic plan, prompted the move. 

“Our unit share grew by just over two points in 2015 and our dollar share growth exceeded that due to product mix,” said Gina Haines, vice president of marketing and CMO. 

“We have already shipped fourteen projects from York and the last project from Ashaway shipped this week,” stated Bob Deitrick, vice president of global sales. “The synergy of our integration combined with our policy of ‘customextrudication®’ resulted in a strong second half 2015. With this momentum, we began 2016 with a production schedule of 70 orders including seven systems.” 

“Never losing our customer focus, an important part of our culture, the team rallied to meet customer obligations. We achieved 80% employee retention, a key factor in supporting the success of the transition, along with a well-conceived and well-executed plan,” concluded Schroeder.

As this transfer of operations concludes, the company has established an engineering and sales in North Stonington, Connecticut, 4.5 miles from the Ashaway plant. Listed for sale in late December, the Ashaway facility is now under contract.