The Manitowoc Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer which produces cranes and previously produced commercial refrigeration and marine equipment. It was founded in 1902 and, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, markets, and supports mobile telescopic cranes, tower cranes, lattice-boom crawler cranes, and boom trucks under the Grove, Manitowoc, National Crane, Potain, Shuttlelift and Manitowoc Crane Care brand names.
History
Manitowoc Company, Inc. was founded in 1902 by Charles West and Elias Gunnell in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Through the purchase of the Burger & Burger Shipyard and Drydock, it was known as a shipbuilding and ship-repair company under the name Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. The company grew and diversified, entering the lattice-boom crane business in the mid-1920s and branching into commercial refrigeration equipment shortly after World War II.
During World War II, the Department of the Navy contracted Manitowoc to build a total of 28 submarines, plus the canceled USS Chicolar (SS-464).[3] Before they built the submarines for the Department of the Navy, the company built car ferries.
In November 2002, the company acquired the Grove Crane company from