Composite manufacturer Kenway Corp. acquires assets of Harbor Technologies
File photo / Tim Greenway
Chad Mains at Harbor Technologies Inc. in Brunswick sands the edge of a composite beam in a 2015 file photo.
File photo / Tim Greenway
Martin Grimnes, founder of Harbor Technologies Inc. in Brunswick, in a 2015 file photo.
Kenway Corp. said Monday that it has acquired the assets of the recently dissolved Harbor Technologies LLC, a Brunswick-based business founded in 2003 by Maine composites pioneer Martin Grimnes. Terms were not disclosed.
Harbor Technologies was dissolved by its investors in October and is now a division of Kenway, an Augusta-based composite manufacturer that specializes in products for the heavy industry, infrastructure, government and military markets.
Kenway President Ian Kopp described the purchase as “a strategic acquisition for Kenway” that expands the company’s product offerings in the waterfront infrastructure market.
“For a long time we have admired the visionary nature of the Harbor Technologies products and how they solve long-standing marine infrastructure corrosion and degradation problems,” he said in a company statement announcing the acquisition. “The breadth of Kenway Corp.'s composites engineering and advanced manufacturing capabilities will bring tremendous value to the Harbor Technologies' customer base through our current product offering and our commitment to ongoing innovation."
Kenway's Augusta facility is adding 10,000 square feet of manufacturing space to accommodate Harbor Technologies’ assets. Harbor Technologies’ management team has joined Kenway and will continue operating out of Brunswick. Erik Grimnes, son of Harbor Technologies’ founder, has been appointed the business development manager of the new Harbor Technologies division of Kenway.
“The ability to work with Kenway and their excellent manufacturing, engineering and project management personnel will allow us to really focus our sales and marketing efforts,” he said in a company release. "We're now in a great position to increase the amount of composites being used for infrastructure applications around the world."
The acquisition marks a continued expansion by Kenway Corp. into the infrastructure market where composite solutions are increasingly solving corrosion challenges. In recent years, the company has become a preferred vendor to the U.S. Navy for the Universal Composite Submarine Camel, with installations in New London, Conn., and Norfolk, Va.
Kenway also was the composite manufacturing partner for the world's only composite floating bridge, a historic Vermont landmark that was restored through a modern composite solution. Founded in 1947, the company has nearly 100 employees and manufactures composite products for a wide range of industries, including marine, power, infrastructure, transportation, pulp and paper, renewable energy, government and military.
Since its founding in 2003, Harbor Technologies LLC, located in Brunswick’s industrial park, has developed numerous innovative manufacturing techniques to build corrosion-resistant composite products that outlast and outperform traditional materials like wood, steel and concrete.
Harbor Technologies’ product lines include composite pilings ranging in diameter from 8 inches to over 96 inches that are used in load-bearing, guiding and fendering applications, as well as composite fenders used for impact protection for both vessels and piers.
Kenway will expand these offerings into engineered composite systems that include the composite beams, lumber, stay-in-place forms and other components required for complete system installations. Customers range from federal and state organizations — such as the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and Departments of Transportation — to commercial and private waterfront developers.
The Harbor Technologies division of Kenway has already begun servicing marine infrastructure customers with shipments of HarborPiles for a New Jersey Department of Transportation project; upcoming shipments of HarborPiles and HarborCamels are scheduled to ship to California, Maine and Massachusetts.
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