SHORT HISTORY OF PRENTICE HYDRAULICS INC

Prentice Hydraulics had its beginning in 1945 in the Heikkinen Machine Shop located on Highway 13 a short distance south of the village. In August of that year, with a strong desire to go into business for himself and encouragement from his brothers, Leo Heikkinen opened a one-man repair shop. His wife, Norma, took care of the bookkeeping duties.

For several years the shop operated in the repair and welding of heavy equipment, in steel fabrication, in the sale and repair of chain saws, and in the manufacture of mechanical jammers.

The small-town location helped to eliminate certain "red tape," and by working for himself, Leo had the opportunity to carry through on his own ideas with a minimum of interference.

The time came when individuals wanted special innovations on their jammers, and during the first year of operations, an idea for a "custom job" was put into construction. This new type of jammer attracted the attention of a number of forest product handlers and there were many requests for custom built machines. Through improvement and modification of the mechanical jammer, evolution took place, and resulted in the Prentice Hydraulic Loader.

In 1955 new vistas had opened and the shop had a payroll of three to six men to meet at any given time. In the next year the forest industry was met head on, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, by the shop's only salesman, Leo Heikkinen. Orders came back for five loaders. More men were needed and more space was necessary. By the fall of 1956, the move was made to the old Creamery building, which contained over 7,000 square feet of space.

By the end of 1963, gross sales had soared over the one million mark, and by the end of the following year had reached almost two million. Employment was also climbing, totaling 100 by the end of 1964. Plant space had grown by more than six times what it had been in 1959. A broad and versatile line of hydraulic loading and unloading equipment for use in pulpwood, logging, concrete products, fruit, oil, and many other industries had been added to make PRENTICE one of the leaders in the materials handling field.

In 1965 the gross sales boomed again to over 3.3 million dollars. Employment was over the 170 mark, and community enthusiasm picked up as the area once designated by the government as a depressed area was now recovered and removed from the"list".

Plant space, employee numbers, gross sales, and total assets continued to grow at an amazing pace and by the end of 1966, 295 employees were on the payroll. Dealerships had been expanded to over sixty, with numerous salesmen working out of the dealerships, providing sales amounting to six and a quarter million dollars, with total assets reaching 2.7 million.

In February, the latest addition to the plant provided excellent engineering space and facilities and increased total plant space to 75,000 sq. ft.

At the present time, four shops make up the facilities of Prentice Hydraulics, Inc. The largest, Plant #1, covers over 50,000 sq. ft., is serviced by a railroad siding, and contains complete machine and fabricating facilities, plus a master parts room, paint shop, engineering department, shipping department and assembly room. Plant #2 is used primarily for small loader and component fabricating and assembly. Plant #3 is utilized as a special grapple department, and Plant #4 as a Research and Development shop providing new equipment for the ever expanding material handling field.

In July 1967, Leo Heikkinen entered an agreement to be acquired by OMARK Industries of Portland, Oregon, in order to maintain the rapid growth structure that is so necessary to remain a leader in the competitive hydraulic loader field.

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