SALISBURY — W.A. Brown & Son, the 100-year-old commercial cooler and freezer manufacturer in Salisbury, has been sold to Imperial Manufacturing of Portland, Ore.
It’s the second time the company has been sold in less than two years. In 2010, Ed Brown sold the final controlling interest in the company that his grandfather started in 1910 to Southern Stainless Equipment of Waynesboro, Va.
Today, Southern Stainless sold the company to Imperial.
The W.A. Brown plant will remain in Salisbury at 209 Long Meadow Drive, and the vast majority of the firm’s 45 employees will keep their jobs, said Anil Shah, president of the new W.A. Brown Inc..
Shah has served as president since last year. The Brown family no longer is involved with the company.
“We are all excited and encouraged with the prospects this move brings to W.A. Brown in Salisbury,” Shah said. “The continuation of the W.A. Brown brand under the leadership of Imperial Manufacturing is important to the future of the employees of W.A. Brown.”
W.A. Brown will operate as an Employee Stock Ownership Program company, where employees earn vested company ownership. Imperial Manufacturing is one of a few 100 percent employee-owned ESOP companies.
“Imperial Manufacturing is happy to be affiliated with a grand and storied brand such as W.A. Brown,” Rick Schermerhorn, president and CEO of Imperial, said in a press release. “These companies combine a history of excellence in manufacturing and service covering both coastlines and across the North American continent.”
Read more in Tuesday’s Post.
Contact reporter Emily Ford at 704-797-4264.