Butler County-area companies merge

Two Butler County area companies that make and repair manufacturing equipment used by the paper, energy, steel and other industries have merged.

Miami Machine Corp. of Overpeck and Miami Products Inc. of Cleves merged effective Monday, and hopes are that the combined company can chase bigger business together, said Michael McNeil, vice president of sales.

The new company’s name will remain Miami Machine Corp., and there will be no layoffs or cuts as a result of the deal, McNeil said. Nor is he retiring. McNeil is vice president of sales of the new business, which now has about 50 employees in total.

“We merged the two companies together to make a larger concern so we could be more accommodating to our current customers for larger projects,” he said.

The other benefit of the merger is it will give more schedule flexibility, allowing the company to take on bigger projects and provide a quicker turnaround, said Irvin Vanderpohl, general manager of the postmerger Miami Machine.

Contact information for customers is unchanged.

“We will be open to add rather than subtract,” Vanderpohl said.

Miami Machine has larger machine tools that could benefit jobs, McNeill and Vanderpohl said. Miami Products has more specialties in fabrication and rebuilding equipment, Vanderpohl said. Additionally, Miami Products historically has strength serving some industries that Miami Machine did not have a lot of business in, and vice versa, they said.

Miami Machine was founded in 1972 in Hamilton, and moved to Overpeck outside Hamilton and Trenton in 1975, according to the company’s website, Miamimachine.com. It manufactures equipment used by paper mills across North America, and does contract manufacturing to make and repair parts for other industry equipment.

Miami Products was founded in 1985. Vanderpohl and his wife Shawna purchased Miami Products in 2013, and Shawna is the majority shareholder of the merged business.

“We’ve experienced pretty rapid growth over the last two years. We’re looking to leverage that,” Irvin Vanderpohl said. “What made the most sense was partnering and merging with an existing entity that could increase the customer base and also increase the manufacturing capability.”