Peterson Manufacturing history

When the Armacost family acquired Peterson in 1956, then-president and CEO Don Armacost, Sr. set the company’s course on honest, fair dealings with customers, suppliers, and employees.

1957: Plants open in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Mexico; the Three Rivers operation is spun off.

Further growth took place after the change of leadership, with Kalamazoo Spring offshoot Greenville Spring and Schoolcraft, Michigan-based Spring Tools opening in 1965.

Also in 1968 Precision Spring of Canada, Ltd. was formed in Kingsville, Ontario.

The year 1971 also saw a corporate realignment with the creation of Precision American, a joint venture holding company equally owned by Precision Spring, which was controlled by Thelma and Phyllis Peterson, and Peterson Spring, controlled by Bud Peterson and his children.

1978: The company is split in two halves: Peterson American Corp. (PAC) and Precision Spring.

More growth followed in 1979 when PAC bought California Spring from Ametek and formed joint ventures with Japanese companies to create Muskegon Wire and K.P. American, which would sell Itaya spring machinery in the United States.

In 1982 PAC opened Dreison Technic Spring in Detroit and Larmex in Mexico, which was 40 percent owned by the firm.

In 1990 PAC's revenues dropped by 5.1 percent, and the firm closed its Mattoon Spring and California Spring operations.

The firm's sales rebounded in 1992, growing by 13 percent to $78.8 million.

PAC also sold its 50 percent interest in K.P. Products to Piolax in 1997.

Peterson engineers could use it to accurately predict the effects of 500 laps of racing on a set of valve springs, for example, helping the company create springs such as those used by the winner of the 1999 Indianapolis 500.