Big News in 'Busco: C&A Tool to acquire MAHLE Clevite's facility
By Jennifer Zartman Romano
With so many businesses closing leaving empty shells where progress once was found, a ray of sun seems to be shining on Churubusco today.
Churubusco-based tool engineering company C&A Tool announced today that it will be acquiring the MAHLE Clevite facility in Churubusco in order to accommodate C&A’s continued growth and expansion.
“I am pleased to announce that C&A Tool is acquiring this building as a step toward our company’s future,” said CEO Dick Conrow. “Our employees continue to focus on developing new business in aerospace, medical devices, and other growth markets.”
In mid-October 2008, MAHLE Clevite announced that the Churubusco gasket packaging facility would be closing toward the end of 2009. Sadly, the closure has meant the loss of about 80 jobs and would have meant a large, empty facility – had it not been for C&A’s ability to expand at this time.
According to Alan Tio, president of the Whitley County Economic Development Corporation, C&A Tool was established in 1969 as a premier tool and die maker. The company has experienced continual growth and has become a national and international supplier of metalworking specialties. In all, 530 full-time workers are employed at facilities in the Churubusco and Auburn area.
The MAHLE Clevite facility is 330,000 square foot in size on a 42-acre campus at 570 South Main Street in Churubusco. In late 2006, the MAHLE Group had acquired the former Dana facility along with the rest of Dana’s engine hard parts business.
C&A’s announcement today further increases the company’s business size. In 2008, they added a 105,000 square foot facility in Auburn to the company’s already burgeoning village of tool and die facilities in downtown Churubusco and 200,000 square foot headquarters and production machining facility at the southern outskirts of Churubusco. Complete details of C&A Tool’s plans for the new facility have not yet been finalized.