Date: Fri, 21 Nov 1997 00:59:10 GMT Server: Apache/1.2b11 Last-Modified: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 13:36:05 GMT ETag: "8f6ad-150c-333a77c5" Content-Length: 5388 Accept-Ranges: bytes Connection: close Content-Type: text/html
The year was 1946. A young Marine named Robert B. Daugherty had just returned from the war and was looking for a good business opportunity...and found one. Daugherty recognized the potential of a small manufacturing company operated by an inventor named Sam McCleneghan on a farm near Valley, Nebraska, a few miles west of Omaha. After careful consideration, he invested virtually his entire life savings -- $5,000 -- in the Valley Manufacturing Company, which made farm equipment. Years later, in 1967, the name would be changed to Valmont, to avoid confusion with other companies using the same name.
When recession hit the farm industry in 1952, Daugherty began looking for ways to diversify. That search led down the road to Columbus, Nebraska, and Frank Zyback who had hammered together a strange new machine, a contraption that propelled a long pipeline mounted on wheels around a field, sprinkler irrigating the crop as it went. Valley Manufacturing purchased the patent rights from the inventor in 1953...and the rest is history.
Although beset by countless difficulties in the beginning, the Company spent over a decade perfecting the idea to make it stronger, taller and more reliable. Developing a marketing organization was also critical because none existed. In the early 60s, sales were only in the low hundreds, all within the United States. By the early 70s, Valmont began developing overseas markets, forming Valmont International. Licensing agreements were initially established in Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Austria, and the Soviet Union. In time, substantial numbers of pivot and linear move machines were also sold in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Latin America. There were even a few in Switzerland and a handful just outside London. Today, over 10 million acres are irrigated by Valley mechanized irrigation equipment in the U.S. and some 90 other countries around the world.
Over the years, Valmont's success fostered the growth of additional business lines. The company began manufacturing steel pipe and tubing in 1959. The first product was six-inch pipe. In the 1960s, Valmont's development and use of high-speed, resistance welding for tubular products led directly to the manufacture of tapered tubes for outdoor lighting, traffic signals and other applications. A production line was designed which continually cut, formed and welded at high speeds and with very low labor requirements.
Valmont expanded into the manufacture of large tubular structures for the electrical utility industry during the 1970s. In 1989, Valmont entered the French steel and aluminum lighting standard markets with the acquisition of a majority interest in Sermeto. This was followed in 1991 with the purchase of Valmont Netherlands, a Dutch manufacturer of steel light poles, and a majority interest in the Canadian company, Lampadaires Feralux, Inc., which produces aluminum light poles. By 1994, Energy Steel Corporation of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a manufacturer of utility poles, was acquired by the company. Valmont completed the acquisition of Microflect Company in 1995, a firm that manufactures and installs microwave communication structures. Valmont purchased a majority interest in Telec Centre, a small French manufacturer of communication towers and Gibo-Conimast, a German manufacturer and distributor of pole structures for the lighting market, in 1996.
In Asia, the first production light poles began rolling off the line at Valmont's Shanghai plant in January 1996. Valmont is the majority owner of Shanghai Valmont SST, Inc., in partnership with Shanghai Special Shaped Steel Tubing Company, Limited.
Today, Valmont is a global leader in designing and manufacturing engineered poles, towers and structures for use in various applications, including infrastructure development, communication, construction, and industrial products. Valmont leads the world in mechanized agricultural irrigation equipment, enhancing food production while conserving and protecting our natural water resources. In addition, Valmont produces a wide variety of fabricated products for commercial and industrial applications and is one of the industry leaders in hot-dip galvanizing and powder coating protective finishing processes.