Oregon Iron Works (OIW) and VigorIndustrial, two of Oregon’s largest industrial companies, moved to officially join forces in May with the expectation that their combined facilities and capabilities will provide additional growth opportunities.
Under terms of the merger, OIW and its 500 employees will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Vigor. The combined company will employ about 2,300 people in Oregon, Washington and Alaska.
OIW has been in business since 1944 and has been under current management since 1974. The company builds a wide variety of products ranging from fast military boats to streetcars to nuclear power components. Annual revenue is about $100 million. Its headquarters is in Clackamas, near Portland.
Vigor’s headquarters are in Portland, where it operates a large shipyard. Vigor also owns and operates the former Todd Shipyards in Seattle and the former Alaska Ship & Drydock in Ketchikan, Alaska.
OIW does a lot of advanced machining, custom fabrication and system integration. Vigor and OIW ran U.S. Barge as a joint venture to build barges at Vigor’s Portland shipyard.
“We started building barges together in 2006,” said Frank Foti, president and CEO of Vigor. “OIW has a lot of market presence. We’ve always been close and have a lot of respect for each other.” Foti said that no jobs would be eliminated by the merger.
OIW was recently awarded a federal contract for the construction of special operations stealth boats for Navy SEALs and other combatants. The contract ceiling is $400 million and will run through 2021 if all options are exercised. OIW is also nearing completion of two fast-response fireboats for the city of Portland.
Foti said that Vigor is looking to expand outside of the Northwest. “We really think that critical mass is essential to the survival of U.S. industrial businesses, particularly in marine,” he said. “It is critically important for us to have scale, and scale in the Northwest is limited. Being the best in the Northwest is great. Being the best in class is where we want to be. We have a long way to go yet to get there.”
OIW will retain its name for now, but there are plans to eventually absorb it into the Vigor family brand. — Bruce Buls and K. Hocke
