Pump Star Inc history

8, 1930, under the headline "Priming the Old Pump." Here, the pump is "United States business," and it is being primed by "millions for public construction." Herbert Hoover and Uncle Sam are working the pump, with Congress helping out.

Farley holds buckets labeled "anticipated votes," but Maine would end up supporting F.D.R.'s opponent Alf Landon in the 1936 election. (Only Vermont joined Maine in voting for Landon, so the old political saying "As Maine goes, so goes the nation" was changed to "As Maine goes, so goes Vermont.")

The partners incorporated as Pentair Industries, Inc. in August and completed an initial public offering in January 1967 to sustain their seriously undercapitalized business.

As Del Marth later reported, "By June, 1968, before Pentair was two years old, the corporate dream had become a nightmare.

In 1969, because of Pentair's new status as an acquisition-oriented, international corporation, company stock soared from $2 per share to $25 and a 3-for-1 split was declared.

Unfortunately, the realization of the goal was postponed, largely because of a time-consuming battle against a takeover threat by Steak and Ale founder Peter Wray, an attempt that ended only after Pentair agreed to a $4.5 million settlement in early 1981.

1986 Pentair purchases McNeil Corporation, maker of lubricating products, automotive service equipment, and water pumps.

That month Pentair acquired Schroff GmbH from Fried. It would take until January 1994 for Buxton to find a suitable match.

Pentair bought reciprocating pump maker Aplex Industries, Inc. in January 1996 and made it a subsidiary of F.E. Myers.

A second cost-cutting effort launched in April 1999 involved job cuts totaling 700, a little less than 7 percent of the total workforce, the consolidation of certain operations, and the outsourcing of some manufacturing.

A pretax restructuring charge of $40.1 million and a pretax loss of $36.3 million on the sale of the Lincoln and Century businesses were major factors in a further reduction in profits for 2001 to $32.9 million.

Then in December 2003 Pentair spent $215 million for Northbrook, Illinois-based Everpure, Inc., a provider of water filtration products for the foodservice, vending, residential, recreational vehicle, marine, and aviation markets.