rEXNORD History

The road to becoming Rexnord Industries, LLC had its roots in the late 1800's. Through the years one company has acquired other companies like Falk, Stearns, Nordberg, W.M. Berg, and Highfield. We begin our next century of growth with a fresh look and an eye to the future.

Our short history below features the Rexnord Corporate history and that of our latest acquisition, The Falk Corporation.

The Rexnord history began as the Chain Belt Company. Its history is typical of other Wisconsin manufacturing companies which sprang up in the '1880's and '1890's. Because of such companies, Wisconsin quickly gained an enviable reputation as a producer of fine machinery and industrial equipment.

Back then, Milwaukee, Wisconsin was in its infancy. Its streets were unpaved, horse-cars were the city's transportation system and wood sailing ships carried much of the city's commerce. Open beer gardens were in neighborhood gathering places. Benjamin Harrison was President of the United States and George W. Peck, author of "Peck's Bad Boy", was governor of the state.

In this atmosphere on September 9, 1891, Chain Belt Company was formed. It began in a very small way on the third floor of an old Pauling and Harnischfeger building at 160 Clinton Street. Of the three founders, two, F.W. Slvyer and W.A. Draves, were well known foundry operators. The third, and prime-mover in this new venture, was a versatile inventor, C.W. LeValley, then 58 years of age.

LeValley was born in Hartford, Connecticut. in 1833. After serving in the Civil War, he drifted west to Minnesota where he was employed with the St. Paul Harvester Company. It was there that he conceived the idea that a transmission belt made of cast links instead of leather would provide a positive drive and eliminate problems due to weather conditions. A Mr. W.D. Ewart, who was a distributor for the St. Paul Harvester Co., had the same idea. Ewart's application reached the patent office first and a patent was issued to him in September 1874. Le Valley's application was refused because of the design similarity. Ewart founded the Ewart Manufacturing Co in Indianapolis, Indiana and began turning out links and sprocket wheels for what he called "Link Belts". LeValley, in spite of his setback, or because of it, continued to experiment with chain belts. He was determined to make a competitive link which he could patent and sell without infringing on the Ewart patent. He succeeded and headed for Milwaukee to form the Chain Belt Company with the two gentlemen mentioned earlier.

About 10-years prior to the birth of LeValley, The founding grandfather of Falk was born in 1823 in Miltenberg-on-the-Main, a small city in northern Bavaria that, like so many other Bavarian towns, was known for its beer. In 1848, when he was twenty-four, Franz Falk decided to test his beer-making skills in the New World. Franz departed for the United States, reaching New York in mid-summer. Spending a short time in Cincinnati, he eventually landed in Milwaukee.   In 1856, in partnership with Frederick Goes, Falk bought a parcel of land on the city's outskirts and began to build a brewery. The site that Goes and Falk chose for their brewery was a narrow strip of land in the Menomonee Valley, which is the location of Falk's main plant today. The Bavaria Brewery, is the name that Goes and Falk called their enterprise. Later, sons Otto and Hermann got out of the beer business and sold to Captain Fred Pabst. Hermann became the industrialist and started a company whose first major product was a simple but elaborate process called cast-welding which was a foundry on wheels for repairing streetcar rails. Later adding a foundry. In 1899 the firm was reincorporated under anew, all-purpose name: the Falk Company.   By the summer of 1899, only four years after the first incorporation, the Falk Company had a rather diverse assortment of business lines: cast-welding equipment, special track work, street railway construction, oil switches, and motor gears and pinions. Not all were equally important (the oil switch line lost its spark quickly), but they marked Herman Falk's determination to diversify. Construction of a 70,000 square foot facility in the Menomonee valley began in 1889 and was completed in 1900. By 1910 the plant had expanded to 250,000 square feet and provided jobs for more than 1,000 people during the busiest months. Its work force represented a cross-section of the city's ethnic groups: German, Polish, Irish, Italian, Scottish, English, and several others. Falk became an industrialist in search of an industry, trying everything from foundry work to kerosene engines. The Falk Company kept growing all the while, and all the while its founder was closing in on the answer. By 1910 the company was leaving the streetcar tracks it had traveled to prosperity in earlier years.   Gear-driven machines of the early 1900's changed the face of manufacturing forever, and they provided a new foundation that Herman Falk's company has been building from ever since.

The following year, on February 24, 1892, Chain Belt Co. was incorporated under the laws of the State of Wisconsin with capital stock of $21,000 - half of which was put up by Le Valley. Sales in the first year of operation totaled $13,600; net earnings came to $2,200 and the company's net worth was $12,300.

By 1900, Chain Belt had expanded its line to include material handling conveyors and bucket elevators, all using chain. These conveyors were sold to local breweries to convey grain and barrels of beer.

In 1902, the growing company acquired and moved to its first plant near the 16th Street viaduct. Five years later it made its first acquisition, the LeValley Mfg. Co., a producer of grey iron castings.

During the first decade of the Twentieth Century, the American economy was undergoing a major transformation from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Agriculture was being mechanized. Mass production was underway and skyscrapers were being built.

The automobile was also transforming the nation's streets and highways from dirt roads to concrete. LeValley designed a concrete mixer which launched the Construction Machinery Division. This first new concrete mixer, with a chain drive and cast iron drum, steam engine and boiler, was given the name REX to point up the fact it was "King" of all concrete mixers. The name REX has subsequently played a significant part in the Company's history.

In 1910 the Company began building REX traveling water screens, which eventually led to the manufacture of other equipment for the treatment of water in sewage and water plants. This was the beginning of the Process Equipment Division - now US Filter.

The Company's second acquisition took place in 1912 with the purchase of Prescott Malleable Iron Co., the first unit of the West Milwaukee Works.

That same year the REX line of construction machinery was expanded to include the first road paver. This paver was used to pave the first concrete road in Milwaukee County - a strip 10 feet wide on the Janesville Plank Road.

As the result of the new products developed by LeValley, and because of his management skills, sales went over 1 million for the first time in 1913.

LeValley resigned as President in 1919. He was 82 years old and died two years later. W. Clint Frye was name President. A nephew of one of the founders (P.W. Slvyer) he started as an errand boy when he was 17 years old. He was responsible, among other things, for Chain Belt becoming the first company in Wisconsin to adopt group life insurance for its employees and organized the Quarter Century Club the year the company was 25 years old.

By the late twenties the company had three major divisions: Chain, Conveyor and Construction Machinery. It prospered and in 1928 made its first public stock offering.

During the depths of the depression the company sustained financial losses, but still paid a dividend. When acquired in 1987, Chain Belt had paid a dividend longer than any company listed on the NYSE.

In the early thirties, the Stearns Conveyor Company was purchased which added a line of belt idlers and belt conveyors. In 1939, the Baldwin-Duckworth Chain Corporation with plants in Springfield and Worcester, Massachusetts was acquired. This enlarged Chain Belt by 40% and was the entry into the roller chain business.

In 1942 it became clear that the Allies would need a huge fleet of landing craft to ferry troops and supplies into areas where there were no harbors. The Falk-developed reversing gear was the answer. Falk drives turned the propellers on 12 aircraft carriers, 27 heavy cruisers, 184 destroyers, hundreds or cargo ships and tugboats, and 1,024 LST's. The U.S. Navy built the building know as shop 4 on the Falk premises in the Menomonee valley.

As the United States entered World War II, much of the company's output was funneled into defense industries. The first large direct defense contract was for 105 mm howitzers; later 155 mm "Long Tom" guns, refuse grinders for transport, tank trucks and ammunition hoists. Much of this was manufactured in a special plant built in 1942. Also supplied was a 105 mm howitzer's during the Korean War.

At the conclusion of World War II, Chain Belt Company began a major expansion and modernization program and acquired the government owned gun plant in 1948 (known today as Plant 7).

Winding down from the war saw Falk reduce is workforce and concentrate on upgrading and improving the manufacturing process. Standard products were introduced in 1948, the All-Steel Motoreducer line, and in 1952 the Shaft-Mounted drive. The sales organization was restructured and emphasis was placed on distribution. Custom products continued to be a mainstay. In 1955 Falk built a manufacturing plant in Brazil. In 1957 Falk ran out of room in the valley and expanded to suburban Wauwatosa. Mecanica-Falk was opened in 1960. In 1964 Falk-Canada opened.

In 1950, construction was begun on a new general office building in West Milwaukee. That's Bldg. "G", 4701 W. Greenfield Ave., where Rexnord Corporation has its headquarters today. That same year additions were added to the Conveyor and Process Equipment and Construction Machinery plants.

1953 was significant because Chain Belt began manufacturing outside the United States - first in Canada and later in Europe and South America. Foreign sales offices opened and foreign acquisitions and joint ventures took place. This was the year the Shafer Bearing Corporation of Downers Grove, IL was acquired. The next acquisition of importance to today's Rexnord Corporation was the Thomas Flexible Coupling Company of Warren, PA. in 1962.

In 1968 the Sundstrand Corporation, a Rockford Illinois firm became Falk's parent.   In 1972 Falk unveiled a fluid power drive that combined Sundstrand hydraulic motors and Falk drives. In 1973 for the first time a non-Falk was at the helm. Joe Zwisler became Falk president. Three service centers were opened from 1971-1974. The seventies were a booming time for Falk with incoming order rates at $1,000,000/day. Facilities were expanded to accommodate the new orders. In 1975 Falk built its Auburn, Alabama coupling plant.

In 1964, the company's name was changed to Rex Chainbelt Inc. to give the corporate title more identity and to closer identify with the REX trademark. That same year Mathew Conveyor Company was purchased and sales passed 100 million for the first time.

Rex Chainbelt made a major acquisition in 1970 - the Nordberg Manufacturing Company and a few years later acquired their license in France. This was the same year that the construction of the office and plant facility for the Environmental Control Group (Envirex) in Waukesha and modernized the foundry in West Milwaukee was completed.

In 1973 the company name changed to Rexnord Inc. In the next few years:

- Expanded the chain operations in Germany
- Began to assemble a group of companies to form the Chemical products Division
- Expanded involvement in the specialty fastener business
- Acquired Fairfield Manufacturing Company
- Invested heavily in new facilities for the Power Transmission Division
- Sold the company's Construction Machinery Division to an employee owned corporation, Rexworks, Inc.

All of this enabled Rexnord Inc.to push sales to over one billion for the first time in 1979. Pretax profits were a record 105 million.

Banner Industries successful tender offer for Rexnord's stock in early 1987. Rexnord became a wholly owned subsidiary of Banner in April of that year. Banner implemented a restructuring and by the summer of 1988 Rexnord was left with 3 businesses - MPD, SFD, and Envirex.

In August of 1988 Banner Industries purchased PT Components (Link Belt). PT Components was merged with Rexnord's Mechanical Power Division to form Rexnord Corporation, a closely held independent company - 40% owned by Banner and 60% by outside investors. Chain Belt and Link Belt, after being competitors for 98 years, now were working together to becoming the finest power transmission company in the world.

The 1981-82 recession was a different story for Falk. A downturn in Falk markets caused a reduction of over 1,000 employees. Finally in 1988 things turned around. The 1990's saw plant improvements such as laser cutting machines, machining centers, a 40-foot Maag gear shaper, and a 50-foot boring mill. Product upgrades were rampant throughout the 1990's and the new "Gearing for Tomorrow" campaign seemed to fit the direction of the company.

Through a series of acquisitions in the 1990's, the company further expended its offering of industrial power transmission products to create what is today the broadest and strongest product portfolio in the industry. In 1992, Rexnord acquired Marbett SpA, an Italian manufacturer of conveyor components to the food and beverage industry. In 1997, Rexnord acquired MCC BV of the Netherlands, another leading supplier of conveyor components to the food and beverage industry. In 1998, the company acquired ball-bearing manufacturer MB Manufacturing and Addax®, a supplier of lightweight composite couplings.

Rexnord completed an initial public offering in 1992 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was sold in 1994 to the British firm BTR plc who added W.M. Berg and Highfield, to Rexnord in 1997 and 1999. Together with the Stearns brake business, formerly part of P.T. Components, these three units make up Rexnord's Special Components segment today. This segment compliments Rexnord's Industrial Power Transmission business as well as its Aerospace unit, which itself was formed through a series of acquisitions between 1953 and 1986.

In 1999, BTR merged with Siebe plc to form Invensys plc, a leader in global automation and controls. As part of a restructuring plan, Rexnord Corporation was sold to The Carlyle Group in 2002 and formed Rexnord Industries.

In 2004, Rexnord made a strategic acquisition by purchasing the Falk Corporation, a global leader in the manufacture of power transmission solutions. This new arrangement drove overall revenue to the $1 billion market.

In 2005 Apollo Management L.P. agreed to purchase Rexnord Corporation from The Carlyle Group.

In 2006 RBS Global, Inc., the parent company of Rexnord Corporation, announced that it has entered into an agreement with an affiliate of Apollo Management, L.P. to acquire the plumbing products business ("Zurn") of Jacuzzi Brands, Inc. This acquisition will create a new strategic water management platform for Rexnord. Zurn is a leader in the multi-billion dollar non-residential construction and replacement market for plumbing fixtures and fittings. It designs and manufactures plumbing products used in commercial and industrial construction, renovation and facilities maintenance markets in North America, and holds a leading market position across most of its businesses.