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The eBearing News
January 2, 2004
RBC Completes Acquisition of
Timken Standard Plant
copyright © 2004 eBearing Inc.
Roller Bearing Company of America Inc. (RBC, USA) has completed its acquisition of
The Timken Company (USA) Standard Plant's aircraft bearing operations in Torrington, Connecticut.
The business is scheduled to open its doors January 5, 2004 as a new division -- RBC Aircraft Products Inc. --
using around 100,000 square feet of leased space in the Standard Plant (Timken continues to own the
building itself) and includes some related products from Timken's Super Precision plant in Keene, New Hampshire.
The product lines involved in the transaction tightly mesh with RBC's existing product lines. As an
initial press release pointed out, "RBC focuses on the kind of higher volume, catalog product made
at the Standard Plant. The plant manufactures aircraft control bearings, aircraft rod ends, radial
bearings and aircraft track rollers."
Timken will continue to operate its own manufacturing in other areas of the Standard Plant,
employing approximately 100 people. They are involved in other types of aerospace and
precision bearings, including automotive and outboard marine bearings.
With few other reasonable options available to Timken for a divestiture of the airplane bearing operations,
the move is widely seen as the best possible outcome for Timken, RBC, and the Standard Plant employees.
Timken inherited the massive turn-of-the-century Torrington Standard Plant, and the Fafnir airframe
bearing division housed there, when it acquired The Torrington Company from Ingersoll-Rand in early
2003. But the Standard Plant's product lines for airplanes is not a good fit with Timken's other
aircraft and aerospace bearing business.
By August 2003, Timken had officially announced plans to divest
the Standard Plant's aircraft bearing operations. At the time, eBearing and others began to speculate
that the most logical and mutually advantageous acquirer would be RBC. Key among the reasons is the
fact that many senior RBC executives had once been employed by Torrington with responsibility for
various Fafnir aerospace product lines produced at the Standard Plant.
In October 2003, Timken revealed RBC would be acquiring those Standard Plant assets.
• February 2003 article: Timken completes Torrington acquisition
• August 2003 article: Timken will sell Standard Plant operations (detailed)
• October 2003 article: RBC acquiring most Timken Standard Plant operations
In the final announcement, however, the companies have now revealed that RBC will also be
acquiring certain aerospace bearing assets from Timken's Keene facility.
Acquired in 1990, Timken Super Precision's 62-year-old, 195,000 square foot Keene plant (formerly Miniature
Precision Bearings Inc.) gets approximately 40% of its sales from the aerospace segment.
Neither Timken nor RBC clarified what equipment from Keene was included in the Standard Plant acquisition.
The employment impact at Keene, which has regularly been hit by layoffs, is unknown. Beyond aerospace, markets
for the plant's precision bearings are makers of medical, dental, semiconductor and precision manufacturing equipment.
Although Timken included Standard Plant Fafnir operations in many of its plans, the operation's future
was in doubt long before Timken came along. Torrington, under Ingersoll-Rand, repeatedly restructured
and cut back the operation. Sources told eBearing that Torrington would have sold off or shuttered the
Standard Plant, but Ingersoll-Rand felt Torrington as a whole was a more attractive acquisition candidate
with the Standard Plant up and running.
When Timken, with little related expertise or sales penetration for the Standard Plant product lines,
acquired the operation, several employees there told eBearing they fully expected Timken to shut down
or sell of the operation quickly. The only real surprise, according to many, is that it took RBC and Timken
almost a year to find each other and complete the sale.
Timken said it will continue to manufacture aerospace products as part of Timken Aerospace,
including specialized, highly engineered bearings for critical applications such as jet engines,
gearboxes, auxiliary power units, instrumentation and helicopters. Timken also produces
bearings for aircraft landing wheels. "The aerospace market is important to us, and we will
continue our strategy of providing our customers with advanced technology and highly engineered
bearings for selected applications," said Mike Arnold, President of Timken Industrial.
Most Fafnir Standard Plant employees eBearing has heard from are very satisfied with the result. RBC
management, they point out, is still well-known to many employees, their loss seen as part of the
"brain drain" afflicting Torrington in recent years as its star faded under Ingersoll-Rand.
190 Standard Plant employees related to the divested Standard Plant operation were let go by Timken; they were to
be laid off effective December 19, but Timken and RBC did not complete the transaction in time for that
to happen. Instead, Timken elected to furlough the 190 employees on December 19, officially keeping them on as
Timken employees through January 2, 2004, while making them eligible for unemployment benefits. In addition,
Timken furloughed their own 100 Standard Plant employees over the same period, but they will return
to work as usual for Timken on January 5.
With the termination and furlough arrangement, RBC can then interview and hire as their plans for the
operation dictate. RBC can also reset health care coverage and other benefits. In fact, RBC has been holding
job fairs in the Torrington area -- presumably aiming to staff the Standard Plant operations -- but has
not publicly indicated how many people it expects to hire back and in what positions. An ex-Torrington
employee told eBearing RBC also seems to be trying to bring out some of the skilled Standard
Plant employees who quit in recent years out of frustration with Ingersoll-Rand or were lured away
to what were perceived as more stable jobs elsewhere in the area.
Also in consideration may be the union representation. Under Timken, Standard Plant employees were
represented by the United Autoworkers, but RBC plants also have the United Steelworkers.
Few believe RBC intends to maintain its presence in the aging Standard Plant for longer
than absolutely necessary, given the condition of the facilities and the fact that Timken
still owns the building. Many Standard Plant bearings are easily transferred to other RBC manufacturing
locations and business units such as Heim, Nice and Industrial Tectonics. The
only holdups may be related to stringent aerospace quality certifications which cannot simply be
moved from one plant to another.
RBC spokeswoman Wade Costello told eBearing the company is looking
forward to restarting operations and integrating the Standard Plant products.
Both Timken and RBC declined to disclose to eBearing any details of the transaction itself; best-guess estimates
eBearing was able to gather put the transaction value between USD $20 million and $30 million. Also not yet
disclosed were many other details, such as the expected sales and profitability impact for Timken and RBC, the
fate of the Fafnir brand name, or any senior Timken managers attached to the Standard Plant operation.
Asked to comment, Dr. Michael Hartnett, President and CEO of RBC, had this
statement for eBearing: "The acquisition of the Timken airframe products business complements our
existing line of aircraft bearings very well, and marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter
in RBC's history. We are scheduling meetings with our new customers and look forward to
forging strong relationships with them."
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- by Bruce A. Carr
from individual research,
tips and commercial sources.
Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered
trademarks of eBearing Inc.
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright © 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered trademarks of eBearing Inc.
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