WireCo WorldGroup

Corporate headquarters at 12200 N. Ambassador Drive on the site of the former Red Crown Tourist Court 2009

WireCo WorldGroup (formerly Wire Rope Corporation of America) is a privately owned company that claims to be the world's largest manufacturer of wire rope.[1]

History

J.P. Barclay, Sr. founded the company in 1931 as a spin-off of the New Haven, Connecticut-based Wire Machinery Corporation of America. In 1950 it moved its headquarters to St. Joseph, Missouri where its main operations had been since 1948.[2]

It acquired the wire rope division of A.H. Leschen & Sons of St. Louis, Missouri in 1962; the Armco Steel wire rope division in 1988; the Rochester Corporation wire rope division in 1998; the Broderick Bascom Rope Company and MacWhyte Wire Rope Company of Wisconsin in 1999; the Aceros Camesa in Mexico in 2005; entered into a joint agreement with Wuhan Iron and Steel in China in 2006; Wireline Works of Canada in 2007; CASAR in 2007 and Phillystran in 2009.[3]

In 1994 the company received national publicity with the broadcast of security video showed an employee urinating into the employee coffeepot at its St. Joseph plant.[4]

In 2002 the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. KPS Special Situations acquired the company for $53 million in assumed debt and $1.5 million in cash.

Fox Paine & Company bought the company in 2007[2] Later that year the company moved its headquarters to the former Farmland Industries headquarters on the site of the Red Crown Tourist Court by Kansas City International Airport.[5] The company was renamed Wireco Worldgroup in October 2007 and ownership was transferred to Paine & Partners.

References

  1. ↑ "Fact Sheet". WireCo WorldGroup. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Wire Rope Corp. sale completed - St. Joseph News-Press | HighBeam Research - FREE trial". Highbeam.com. 2007-02-10. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  3. ↑ "History of Growth". WireCo WorldGroup. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  4. ↑ "Urine in Coffee Pot". snopes.com. Retrieved 2010-05-15.
  5. ↑ Heaster, Randolph (2007-05-23). "Article: Wire Rope to move offices to KC. | AccessMyLibrary - Promoting library advocacy". AccessMyLibrary. Retrieved 2010-05-15.

External links