Crane Co. is still planning to divest the company’s Crane Composites division, President and CEO Max Mitchell said. When the sale will come remains a mystery.
Crane Composites is a part of Crane Co.’s Engineered Materials segment. Crane Composites, a world leader in fiber-reinforced composite material supplies, is an OE supplier to the RV industry.
The segment was sold in 2021 to a Brazilian company, Grupo Verzatec S.A. de C.V., before the Justice Department stepped in to block the sale. Since then, the Engineered Materials segment has been operating within Crane Co. but the parent company has focused primarily on other business divisions after a restructuring.
In announcing the company’s third-quarter financial results Tuesday, Mitchell reiterated the parent company’s affection for the Engineered Materials segment.
“As we have stated before, we love the business,” he said. “(It is a) great team, great business, great end markets. It is not strategic for Crane.”
Mitchell said the company would revisit the Engineered Materials division’s sale process down the road.
“We tried to sell it once,” Mitchell said. “DOJ had some issues with the acquirer (and) unfortunately, we missed that cycle. We will not miss the next cycle. It is just a matter of time.”
In the third quarter of 2024, the Engineered Materials division registered $49 million in sales, down 13% compared with the third quarter of 2023.
