Fisher Controls International LLC history

Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Emerson Electric Co.Incorporated: 1888 as Fisher Governor CompanyEmployees: 9,600Sales: $928 millionSICs: 3492 Fluid Power Valves & Hose Fittings; 3823 Process Control Instruments

The company was first founded in 1890 in StLouis, Missouri.

In fact, Fisher was an exclusive sales representative for Eastman Kodak cameras and supplies in 1898.

Company sales reached $44,000 by 1905.

A sales agency was established in 1913, and Fisher traveled the continent himself as the company launched its first nationwide advertising campaign.

Fisher enjoyed substantial profits from the growth in the steel, petroleum, power, and gas industries in the early 1920s.

Jasper Fisher died in 1938.

Jasper’s son, J.W. “Bill” Fisher, joined the company’s finance department in 1940.

In light of its wartime achievements, the company received an Army-Navy “E” flag in 1943, given in recognition of “superior production achievements of vital war materials.”

Although Fisher was faced with labor problems, a new manufacturing addition was installed in 1948 to help meet rising sales.

In 1957 Fisher purchased the Pennsylvania-based Continental Equipment Company.

The following year, Fisher opened a temporary factory in Monterrey, Mexico, until a permanent plant was opened near Mexico City in 1965.

Manufacturing capacity continued to explode in 1967, when Fisher enlarged two more plants and opened a new eight-acre facility in Marshalltown, birthplace of the founder’s inspiration.

A joint venture named Nippon-Fisher was launched in 1969, whereby Fisher manufactured and sold its products in Japan and the Far East.

Fisher opened its first European manufacturing facility in 1970, in Cornwall, England.

Marshall Die Casting joined Fisher in 1975, after supplying aluminum and zinc die castings to the company for more than 30 years.

The product line was immediately successful, and a new plant was opened in 1976 just to manufacture this popular line.

Fisher Brazil, a facility that produced both control valve and instrumentation products for South American countries, opened its doors in 1977.

The purchase made Emerson the largest provider of process control equipment. Its sales for 1991 were $7.4 billion.

Fisher also entered into a joint venture with Tianjin Fourth Automation Instrumentation Factory in China in 1992.

At the end of 1993 Fisher announced it would close down Marshalltown's Center Street plant and move those operations to plants in Texas, Mexico, and Asia, where labor costs were cheaper.

In 1994 the company created the Y693 gas tank regulator and Design SC, a cryogenic valve.

Fisher announced plans to construct new plants in Hungary and Brazil, and in 1999 a new plant in Malaysia began operation.

2001: Fisher-Rosemount is renamed Emerson Process Management.

Several months later, in July, Fisher said it would close the Posi-Seal plant in North Stonington, Connecticut, by early 2004.

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