Schafer Gear Works has acquired the assets of Dana Holding Corporation's leisure, all-terrain and utility vehicle axle and differential business including their related manufacturing facilities in Fredericktown, Ohio, and Blacklick, Ohio. The new division of Schafer Gear will be called Schafer Driveline LLC. The acquisition was announced jointly by Schafer Gear President Bipin Doshi and Stan Blenke, the company's executive vice president.

The manufacturing facilities include a 120,000-square-foot assembly plant in Fredericktown, Ohio, producing axles for leisure, all-terrain and utility vehicles; transmissions and transaxles for ATVs; and related off-highway brake components and assemblies. The second plant, a 30,000-square-foot facility located in Blacklick, Ohio, is a machining operation producing aluminum gear housings, ductile iron differential cases and ductile iron brake components for the leisure, all-terrain and utility vehicle markets.   Collectively, the two plants have 158 salaried and hourly employees.

According to Blenke, the purchase of the Dana operations was an opportunity that aligned with Schafer's strategic objective to expand its product mix through vertical integration. "For nearly 80 years, Schafer has been involved in providing gears nationally and internationally for many applications and customers, including those in transportation-related industries," said Blenke. "Adding gear boxes and axles to our product mix is a logical step in our company evolution and it provides us with more depth and flexibility in meeting the needs of our customers."

Blenke added that the transaction process was completed with unprecedented speed. "Dana was already a customer of ours so we knew their operation well. That certainly helped expedite the transaction. And we can't say enough about the cooperation we received from Dana officials in moving this process along expeditiously.  The same goes for the management team and employees at the plants. The enthusiasm for this new venture is as high at our new Ohio plants as it is here at our headquarters."

Tom Troyan, plant manager of both Ohio facilities, will assume the position of general manager under the new ownership. "Tom Troyan has been highly effective in his role as manager of the Fredericktown and Blacklick operations," said Doshi. "He and his team have been very successful in building exceptional standards for safety, quality and productivity. We are delighted to have him on the Schafer team."