MODCO TOOLS history

Around 1878, when the small company needed a new milling machine for the tap making business and could not afford one, Holz put his machinist background to work and built one with an improved basic design.

Soon, other shops began requesting machines, and by 1882, Cincinnati Screw and Tap found itself adding milling machines to its product line.

In 1884, the company became incorporated to raise the capital it needed to produce the more costly machines and to finance a move to a larger facility near the Ohio riverfront.

In 1887, Frederick A. Geier, while doing business with the Cincinnati Screw and Tap Co., became excited about this innovative company's potential.

In early 1889, the stockholders approved the sale of the screw and tap business to a group of employees.

By 1907, land had been purchased in the nearby community of Oakley, financing had been secured for the move, and work on the foundry was begun.

Management also worked closely with the Mutual Aid Committee, which was founded in 1916 as an employee insurance association and used as a relief organization for those hardest hit during the Depression.

By the time the armistice was signed in November 1918 and the postwar return to "normalcy" had begun, however, government contracts were being cancelled, and the Mill found itself with a sudden excess capacity.

As Geier sought to keep his employees in work year-round, and for the highest possible wages (a strategy known as "work-spreading"), Mill employees remained generally disinterested in forming unions or becoming involved in strikes during the labor union wars of the early 1920s.

In September 1921, the company bought controlling interest in the Cincinnati Grinder Co. and the following year moved production of the grinding machine to Oakley.

In 1932, the Mill agreed with Heald Machine Co. of Worcester, Massachusetts, to share engineering, research, and patents.

With forethought, the Mill had decided to expand the company's capacity in 1938 and had also began a formal three-stage training program for workers.

In February 1946, the Mill raised $3.8 million in new capital when it issued its first public stock offering.

In 1955, the Mill expanded its move into chemicals, acquiring a company that, among other things, made additives for plastic.

They discovered Ministry of Labour reports, dating back to 1974, which ordered the company to reduce cobalt exposures and properly ventilate the machines.

By 1977, the Mill was the largest United States maker of plastics machinery.

In 1980, the Mill sold its profitable specialty chemical operations to the Thiokol Corporation, in order to focus more closely on its three more closely allied divisions: machine tools, plastics machinery, and industrial specialty products.

Arlette King, spouse of a Valenite worker at the Windsor, Ontario plant, watched the 1984 Today series with horror.

1986 Who Owns Whom lists GTE Valeron Corp. as having numerous subsidiaries, including several with Valenite and Valenite-Modco in their names.

Some of Valenite's dirtier operations were closed down. (The story was updated with a new five-part series on Today in June, 1987.)

According to an April 1992 article in The Cincinnati Enquirer, each team was charged with improving the quality of Milacron's machines while removing up to 40 percent of the cost and 40 percent of the components.