From Engine Builder

Crane Cams has been recognized as a recipient of the 2012 Florida Companies to Watch award, an honor presented by the Florida Economic Gardening Institute (GrowFL) at the University of Central Florida.

Florida Companies to Watch is an awards program that celebrates privately held second-stage companies headquartered in the state. To be eligible, applicants must employ between six and 99 full-time equivalent employees and have between $750,000 and $50 million in annual revenue or working capital in place. Award winners are selected for demonstrating the intent and capacity to grow based on employee or sales growth, exceptional entrepreneurial leadership, sustainable competitive advantage, outstanding corporate culture, inspired community giving and other notable strengths.

Among the honorees in 2012 is Crane Cams.

"We’re extremely honored to be recognized by the GrowFL organization as a Florida Company to Watch," said Sean Holly, president of Crane Cams. "We’re solidly committed to American manufacturing, and to be recognized for that, and our efforts to grow manufacturing jobs here in Florida, is extremely rewarding."

Crane Cams was founded in 1953 and has grown to be an internationally respected leader in the manufacture of high performance camshafts, valve train and ignition components. Today, Crane Cams is owned by George and Ken Smith, who have achieved global recognition for their leadership of S&S Cycle, as well as their passion for racing and hotrods.

Crane Cams says it has significant manufacturing resources to rely on, including state-of-the-art CNC machining centers and Spintrons. The company has the ability to produce fully digitized camshafts using Landis CNC equipment, as well as grinding cams via traditional methods using production masters. The company also says it has the industry’s largest camshaft database, which exceeds 80,000 grinds.

Florida Companies to Watch is unique, according to its creators, because of its focus on second-stage companies and the wide-ranging industries they represent. During 2007-2009, Florida’s resident companies averaged more than 110,000 second-stage establishments. These second-stage companies employed nearly 2.5 million workers.

For more information, visit www.Florida.CompaniesToWatch.org.