Private company

The Manitowoc Company

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

American cranes manufacturer

The Manitowoc Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer which produces cranes and previously produced commercial refrigeration and marine equipment.2 From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 16, 2026.

Overview

1902Founded1
  • Tickeron NYSE1
  • Industryindustrial manufacturing1
  • HeadquartersMilwaukee1
  • Websitewww.manitowoc.com
  • Listed onNew York Stock Exchange (MTW)1

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EXCON 2025, Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (707)
Photo: Gpkp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

The Manitowoc Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer which produces cranes and previously produced commercial refrigeration and marine equipment. It was founded in 1902 and, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, markets, and supports mobile telescopic cranes, tower cranes, lattice-boom crawler cranes, and boom trucks under the Grove, Manitowoc, National Crane, Potain, Shuttlelift and Manitowoc Crane Care brand names.2

How it started

History

Manitowoc Company, Inc. was founded in 1902 by Charles West and Elias Gunnell in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Through the purchase of the Burger & Burger Shipyard and Drydock, it was known as a shipbuilding and ship-repair company under the name Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. The company grew and diversified, entering the lattice-boom crane business in the mid-1920s and branching into commercial refrigeration equipment shortly after World War II.

During World War II, the Department of the Navy contracted Manitowoc to build a total of 28 submarines, plus the canceled USS Chicolar (SS-464). Before they built the submarines for the Department of the Navy, the company built car ferries.

In November 2002, the company acquired the Grove Crane company from Kidde for approximately $271 million. In March 2016, Manitowoc completed the tax-free spin-off of its food service equipment operations, placing itself as a standalone crane company.

From Wikipedia’s article on The Manitowoc Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Subsidiaries and ownership

Subsidiaries

From Wikidata.1

Acquisitions

  1. 2000Acquired Marinette Marine1
  2. 1968Acquired Bay Shipbuilding Company1

Timeline

  1. Jan 3, 1994Went public Listed on NYSE1
  2. 1902Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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