ITW Puts Akron, OH, Plant Up for Sale

ITW Ride Quality Products, the former Akron Standard Co., will probably have a new owner in 2007. The plant, which makes testing equipment for the automotive and tire industries, has been put up for sale by its Glenview, IL, parent company, Illinois Tool Works. Ride Quality Products President Steve Harris said the company will be sold as a package with Balance Engineering, an ITW division in Detroit that also produces automotive market testing equipment.

From Akron Beacon Journal

AKRON, OH — ITW Ride Quality Products, the former Akron Standard Co., will probably have a new owner in 2007.

The plant, which makes testing equipment for the automotive and tire industries, has been put up for sale by its Glenview, IL, parent company, Illinois Tool Works.

Ride Quality Products President Steve Harris said the company will be sold as a package with Balance Engineering, an ITW division in Detroit that also produces automotive market testing equipment.

"ITW decided we’re not in their core strategy," Harris said, noting that other divisions make products like shrink-wrap machines and nail guns. "They want to refocus."

Harris, who characterized the impending sale as "a good thing," said ITW hopes to close a sale by early next year.

Dan Hudkins, a 39-year employee of the company, said many employees have concerns.

"Everybody’s worried nowadays," Hudkins said. "Of course, we want to know who’s interested in buying us."

Hudkins is current president of Local 1761 of United Steelworkers of America, which represents about 48 of the company’s 162 employees.

ITW is a publicly traded 90-year-old corporation made up of 700 decentralized business units in 48 countries that employ nearly 50,000, according to its website. In 1990, ITW purchased Akron Standard for $39 million from Eagle-Picher Industries of Cincinnati. The Akron company was renamed several years ago when Akron Standard Co. merged with Micropoise from Indianapolis.