Ravenna, OH (USA) - Ravenna Aluminum Foundries, which closed its two casting facilities in Northeast Ohio late last year, has a potential buyer in the background, but few details were released, according to a source close to the company.
The source said Ford Motor, Ravenna's former majority customer and later a minority customer, and Comerica Bank have been negotiating who the new owner should be. Ford paid the bank around $9 million to keep Ravenna's casting plant running to get all of its supplies," now Ford has a final say in who it gets sold to and what it gets sold for," said the source. "There were bidders and a potential sale if the numbers are in agreement," he said.
The source said Ford used to be Ravenna's major customer but over the years, most of Ravenna's castings have gone to international and secondary machine shops.
The source added that all furnaces have been drained out, product shipped and about 500 workers laid off. "All operations are shut down, but the plant is ready for whomever the future owner would be," he said. He said he believed the plants would be restarted under new ownership.
The Blemaster family currently owns the facilities but are not involved in the sale.
Jeff Beard, a spokesman for Ravenna, would only say, "I'm not talking to reporters."
Ravenna attorney Robert Deacon was unavailable at presstime. But Deacon told Platts in November that the initial goal was to reach a deal by December 31 on a sale of the company or its assets. "If we can't complete or close a sale by that time, then we're going to have to close [both] plants. The company will cease to exist. We only have the two plants."
He indicated then there were a lot of potential interested buyers. "There are at least three groups looking at it, and there might be more," he said. The company would only say it was closing because of "economic hardship."
Ravenna's two plants produced 2.5 million lb/month of castings for the automotive, aerospace and marine industries. Part of the Foundry Systems International Group, Ravenna was established in 1987 and has produced more than 20 million castings, according to its website.
