NEW PHILADELPHY The new owners of Crane Carrier Co. plan to significantly expand their manufacturing space and create hundreds of new jobs in the near future.
The company was recently bought by Los Angeles-based Battle Motors Co.
“The first thing we do is update all equipment,” said Mike Patterson, CEO and founder of Battle Motors.
“Then we have 125,000 square feet here. We’re adding 225,000 square feet of manufacturing space to these 52 acres that we have. So we’re going to expand it and increase production dramatically.”
Crane Carrier has been manufacturing commercial vehicles for 75 years and is based in New Philadelphia with 180 sales and service dealers across North America.
The company is a leader in the professional trucking industry, providing custom hard-to-drive chassis and purpose-built vehicles for the waste and recycling, infrastructure maintenance, ground support, multi-stop distribution, agriculture, and oil and gas markets.
The facility has around 125 employees.
Crane Carrier won’t change its name.
“We’re going to keep the Crane Carrier name, it’s a great name,” said Patterson.
Battle Motors is developing electric vehicle technology and plans to incorporate the Crane Carrier chassis into its product. Then Crane Carrier will have diesel trucks, compressed natural gas trucks and this summer electric trucks manufactured in New Philadelphia, Patterson said.
“I think Crane was kind of a sleeping giant with a good reputation,” he said. “You just have to build more trucks and we will.”
The company will lay the foundation stone for its new production facility in June.
“The company’s vision will be a huge boost to the local economy,” said Joel Day, New Philadelphia mayor. Battle Motors could be the catalyst establishing New Philadelphia as the regional center for clean energy technologies. “
Patterson noticed that the Crane Carrier was hiring. Skilled workers can visit the Battle Motors website to apply for a position.
“We have a great workforce here, very hard-working, very competent,” he said. “We look forward to building something very special here in New Philadelphia.”
