Rope company begins production at ex-Crowe facility

WINSLOW – A new rope company has begun production in the rope-making plant formerly owned by Crowe Rope Industries.

Orion Ropeworks has taken possession of Crowe’s assets in Winslow and should be operating at full production in the next month or two, said James Edgerly, the company’s chief executive officer.

Edgerly said the company has 40 employees and will have 70 workers when the plant is at full production.

The opening of the rope plant came on the same day that C.F. Hathaway Co., a 150-year-old shirt manufacturer, announced it will close down its facility for good in June. The Hathaway plant, located in Waterville across the Kennebec River from Winslow, has about 300 employees.

Edgerly said the three main investors in Orion are him, Camden entrepreneur Tom Laurita and Yale Cordage Inc., a Biddeford-based rope company. He said he became interested in buying Crowe’s assets while working at The Recovery Group, a Boston investment company.

“For The Recovery Group, this was a smaller business than they typically work with,” Edgerly said. “Our clients typically have over $100 million in annual sales. They were the wrong size for our company. But for me, personally, they had all the features of something I had been looking for for a long time.”

Orion manufactures twisted and braided ropes made of polyester, polypropylene, nylon and blended polymers. Its customers include industry, commercial fishing, recreational boating, government and utilities.

He said Orion and Yale Cordage will not have any duplicate production. He said the product list will be split down the middle, with half being manufactured at Yale Cordage’s plant and half at Orion’s Winslow facility.

Orion is leasing about two-thirds of the building that formerly was owned by Crowe and now is owed by the town of Winslow.