Content area
Full Text
Less than seven years after stumbling into bankruptcy, Lee Brass has become a thoroughbred in Amcast Industrial Corporation's stable of technologyintensive metal products manufacturing facilities.
Throughout its 80-year history, Lee Brass Co. has heen committed to producing a quality product at a competitive price. Today, the Anniston, AL-based unit of Amcast Industrial Corp. manufactures, fabricates, and distributes cast brass and bronze fittings, valves, and related products for the plumbing. municipal water works, marine, and industrial flow control markets. The foundry's 460 employees also manufacture customer-designed commercial cast products for a wide variety of specialized original equipment manufacturers. These proprietary custom products account for about one-half of its output.
From Humble Beginnings
In 1919, twin brothers Arthur and Alfred Lee borrowed $500, hired one employee, and established Lee Brothers Co. in a 1,200-ft^sup 2^ building. They manufactured only one product: brass cleanout plgs for the soil pipe industry. Even today, that simple product remains an important staple to the company's business. In 1923, they began furnishing rough castings to M & H Valve Co., which machined the castings and incorporated them into their own products. As business grew, Lee Brothers started making a few brass products under their own name in the late 1920s and later added copper fittings to their product offering. During the depression era that followed, declining housing starts slowed the company's growth.
Then came World War II, and Lee Brothers joined the manufacturing boom, pumping out copper-based castings primarily for the shipbuilding industry. By 1946, the company had grown to 250 employees and 63,000 ft^sup 2^ of manufacturing space. As the demand for housing soared in the post-war era and copper gained wide acceptance, Lee Brothers became an important supplier to the plumbing industry, developing a growing network of agents, warehouses, and wholesalers across the country.
In 1963, the company was purchased by Phelps Dodge and subsequently sold to Robins Group in 1983. In 1990, Lee Brass acquired Hays, a brass business started in 1869 to make curb stops, curb boxes, and water valves, and still serves the water works industry with water meters bearing the Lee/Hays name.
In 1992, suffering from a lack of capital investment, Lee Brass went into bankruptcy. The company sold its copper fittings product line...