Manheim hoist maker adds E-town location
BY TIM MEKEEL, Business Editor

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A Manheim-based maker of hoists and cranes is expanding into Elizabethtown.

Harrington Hoists said Tuesday that it has signed a five-year lease for 11 Industrial Road to give it more production and storage space.

"We've had double-digit growth over the past 15 years, except for the recession," said Dawn Hess, marketing coordinator.

The company began moving into the 97,000-square-foot space in the Conewago Industrial Park in December.

After investing $1 million in renovations and new equipment, the firm expects to begin operating there in April and be fully operating in May.

Harrington Hoists will shift 18 of its 130 workers in Manheim to the new site, and hire four to six more employees there.

Harrington Hoists will use about half of the Conewago building, which totals 210,000 square feet on 14 acres in West Donegal Township.

Previously that portion of the Industrial Road building was occupied by American Air Filter, which remains elsewhere in the building.

For Harrington Hoists, Conewago replaces two "satellite" sites in Manheim that were leased to support its 401 W. End Ave. headquarters.

Harrington Hoists was prompted to add the "satellite" buildings when its parent company shifted production of some items to here, Hess said.

Moving to Conewago will be Harrington Hoist's warehousing, assembly and some manufacturing operations.

Staying in Manheim at the West End Avenue property will be its headquarters, fabricating and some manufacturing operations.

Harrington Hoists was founded in 1867 in Philadelphia by machinist Edwin Harrington and later moved to Plymouth Meeting.

The company came to Manheim in 1978. It has been a wholly owned subsidiary of a Japanese company, Kito Corp., since 1990.

Harrington Hoists added a facility in Corona, Calif., in 1993.

Harrington Hoists' devices are used in a host of industrial settings, such as coal mines, paper mills, shipyards and automobile factories -- "anywhere you have to move a product," Hess said.

tmekeel@lnpnews.com