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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Former TheoDavies division
finds mainland buyerPacific Machinery Inc., Hawaii's exclusive Caterpillar dealer and a former division of Theo H. Davies & Co. Ltd., has been purchased by Calif.-based Hawthorne Machinery Co. for an undisclosed sum.
Hong Kong-based conglomerate Jardine Matheson Ltd. bought Pacific Machinery and other Theo Davies businesses in 1973, but last year confirmed it was looking to sell off its Hawaii assets to focus on its Asian heartland, said Director Anthony Nightingale in the company's in-house magazine.
The Hawthorne purchase was negotiated over a year and a half and closed last week after much travel between California, Hawaii and Hong Kong, said Hawthorne Chairman and founder J.T. "Tom" Hawthorne. Hawthorne is a privately held, family run company.
A Jardine spokeswoman confirmed the deal with Hawthorne had been completed.
The 79-year-old Pacific Machinery, with operations on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, in Hilo and Kona and on Guam and Saipan, will be renamed Hawthorne Pacific Corp. and will remain headquartered in Waipahu. Pacific Machinery's ancillary operations such as Hawaiian Fluid Power, which performs specialty hydraulic work, are part of the deal and all 280 employees will stay with the company.
"Everyone is staying with us, 100 percent," said Haw- thorne.
General Manager Robert McGarry will report to Hawthorne President Tee Ness.
"We visited with all of our employees in all the branches ... Tee and I both, we came together and met every employee in the company," Hawthorne said.
"We are very personal, hands-on management people," he said.
Hawthorne has 580 other employees in California, American Samoa, Tonga and Baja, Mexico.
"We're the Caterpillar dealer and have been for 47 years now in California ... and now we're expanding our territory," Hawthorne said.
Hawthorne's market includes heavy equipment for construction, the fishing and maritime industries, and equipment for material handling and canneries, "but a very large part of our business is power generation, power plants and things," Hawthorne said.
He anticipates good business for his Pacific division in co-generation and small power plants in Hawaii and says it represents a large percentage of the company's business in California.
"We're right now trying to get our feet on the ground (in Hawaii) but we intend to try to maintain total employment there and add (employees) as we can expand the business. We plan to offer more services, more products and use the experience that we've had (in California)."
Hawthorne Pacific may eventually hire some 50 additional employees, he said.
Hawthorne was asked if he's heard that Hawaii is on the brink of a housing boom.
"I sure hope so," he said with an audible smile.
He doesn't plan to fork over a bulldozer-load of money to relocate to the islands, however.
The company will buy a Hawaii condo for corporate visits to avoid hotel stays, but his permanent home will remain in California.
"We have our residence right here and have lived here for 46 years -- and my wife won't sign the papers," Hawthorne joked.
The rest of Theo's story
Jardine's six Hawaii auto dealerships and ancillary businesses, trading under the TheoDavies name, were sold to Reed/Jones Acquisition HI LLC for $100 million last year. Reed/Jones is a partnership established by multistate car dealer Fletcher "Ted" Jones and East Coast auto dealer Gene Reed.
No employees lost jobs at the time of the transaction, but former TheoDavies President Gary Wassel recently left the company.
In March, California private equity investment firm Brentwood Associates was exploring the purchase of Hawaii's 86 Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W All American Food restaurants, but no deal has been announced. The sale price is expected to be between $45 and $50 million.
The Hawaii ties of Jardine Matheson and former Big Five company Theo H. Davies go back to the mid-1800s.
The Davies Pacific Center at 841 Bishop St., one of the last monolithic Hawaii icons bearing the Davies name, was purchased by the Shidler Group last year from the California State Teachers' Retirement System as part of a $90 million deal.
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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com