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West Point Foundry and Machine Company
West Point, Georgia
Founded in 1868 |
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| A Short History of a Long Standing Company… |
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| In 1868, three gentlemen from Virginia founded a company on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in West Point, GA for the purpose of providing castings and basic spare parts to the textile mills that were being built on the Alabama side of the river. There are some reports that suggest the company actually existed prior to this time; however, no documents can be located to confirm these reports. |
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| West Point Iron Works, as the company was originally named, grew and at one point included an ice plant, oil mill, industrial supply shop, foundry, machine shop, blacksmith operation and construction business. In 1919 the town of West Point suffered a severe flood that almost destroyed the town and the business. The oil mill was closed and the ice plant sold later that year. The depression years were tough and Amos Huguley purchased West Point Ironworks in 1931. |
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| Shortly after this acquisition, the company began work on developing a machinery product line for the textile industry. West Point has continued to develop new machinery products and for many years has “set the standard” for textile warp preparation machinery. The company began exporting in 1948, and since that time, West Point has sold equipment in over 75 countries around the world. |
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| In 1998 the company purchased the assets of a direct textile machinery competitor, the Reed-Chatwood Company of Rockford, IL. West Point still maintains parts and service for all Reed-Chatwood equipment. |
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| West Point has continued to diversify by marketing our manufacturing capabilities to non-textile related Original Equipment Manufacturers located primarily in the Southeastern US. We offer castings, machining, fabrication, assembly, and warehousing/distribution services. There are very few contract manufacturers in the southeastern US that can offer all these services “under one roof.” We are now implementing a “global sourcing” service for our contract manufacturing customers. |
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| Our non-textile contract manufacturing customers are from a wide range of industries, including pumps, compressors/blowers, copper wire, petroleum, cotton ginning, pulp and paper, mass transit and many more. |
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| We have further diversified our business by adding a Contract Services Division, including West Point Mechanical and
West Point Automation. West Point Mechanical provides equipment removal, transportation and installation services for industrial machinery.
West Point Automation is a software company that we purchased in January 2006. This company provides custom process controls, data collection and data monitoring software for industrial companies. We have years of experience in providing these two services for our domestic textile customers and are leveraging this experience into other industries. |
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| In March of 2006, it was announced that KIA Motor Company would build
its first US Assembly Plant in West Point, GA. The site preparation work is
currently underway. The KIA Assembly Plant will be located only 4 miles from
our current manufacturing facility. We are developing a Warehouse
Distribution service to supply components to KIA and its supplier base,
called West Point Distribution. |
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| West Point’s has a long history as a supplier to the textile industry, but we recognize that our future is still being re-invented as a manufacturer and service provider to many different industries. We look forward writing the next 140 years of this company’s history… |
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