VOL. 38, NO. 35
AUGUST 28 - SEPTEMBER 3, 2017
On the rise
Source Lunch
Tremont expects to get a new apartment complex. Page 5
Fred Cummings, president of Elizabeth Park Capital Management
The List Cleveland’s highest-paid athletes Page 17
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Page 23
SPORTS BUSINESS
MANUFACTURING
Northeast Ohio’s pro athletes haven’t shied away from showing their personalities on social, and those interactions are becoming increasingly important to growing their overall brands — especially for LeBron James. Pages 10-16
Timken buys into products, markets
Staying social is part of the game
By DAN SHINGLER dshingle@crain.com @DanShingler
The Timken Co. is on a tear, and it’s far from finished. “In the last 12 months, we’ve actually completed six acquisitions, which is by far the most we’ve ever done in a one-year period,” said Richard Kyle, CEO of the North Canton-based bearings and power transmission company. The company has been buying its way into new markets, new product lines and onto the supplier lists of new customers with its string of pickups, Kyle said. It’s a strategy he said will continue, because it’s working. Take the last three acquisitions the company has completed, all of them done since April, when it announced it was buying Michigan-based Torsion Control Products. SEE TIMKEN, PAGE 21
Companies’ patience is paying off Illustration by Robert Carter for Crain’s
By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty
Entire contents © 2017 by Crain Communications Inc.
AT THE TABLE
Melt makes Inc.’s fastest-growing list Cleveland-based chain hungry to expand in Ohio, other states Page 7
Northeast Ohio’s public manufacturing companies have been doing pretty well in recent months. Some of this, of course, can be attributed to an improved economy. But some of it is certainly due to the companies themselves, many of which used the slower years of late as a springboard for innovation and change. A lot of companies cut back when times are tough, but that “catches up” to them eventually, said Materion Corp. president and CEO Jugal Vijayvargiya. But Mayfield Heights-based Materion makes sure to invest in research and development when times are good and when they’re bad, so the advanced materials supplier can benefit from it long-term. And it has paid off. “Our new product pipeline is the proof,” Vijayvargiya said. SEE COMPANIES, PAGE 18