WESTERLO — Hannay Reels has a binding agreement to be sold to Madison Industries, according to Hannay’s chief executive officer and president, Eric Hannay.

“We don’t have an exact date yet, but it’ll be early next year,” Hannay told The Enterprise on Thursday.

He declined to disclose the purchase price.

Madison Industries, based in Chicago, lists on its website over 80 companies that it owns, focusing on specialized air systems, filtration, health and industrial products. A private global company, Madison was founded in 1994 by Larry Gies.

“One of their holdings is Reelcraft, which is a friendly competitor of ours, but this is not a merger or anything,” said Hannay. “They would be like a sister company,” he said of Reelcraft Industries, another hose-reel manufacturer, based in Indiana.

Hannay stressed, “We’re staying in Westerlo.”

He said of Madison Industries, “They love the culture, love the people, have nice plans for growth. It’s all good, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

While Hannay said his family was proud of what they had built over generations in Westerlo, he went on, “Knowing, however, that there was no succession plan in place and that we have always run a lean organization and that good health is harder to guarantee the older one gets — that, in the end, became the tipping point.

“The responsible decision was to remove any concerns over continuity of the business, providing our employees more reassurance and certainty about the future. 

“We ended last year with $96 million in sales and expect continued growth in the years to come, with Westerlo continuing to be the place where all the magic happens.”

Hannay Reels employs 160 people. “Our employees have known since mid-January,” Hannay said of the impending sale, “and they’re OK …. They all know we’re going nowhere.”

The family business was founded by Clifford Hannay in 1933. A 1923 entry in The Altamont Enterprise describes Clifford Hannay as “the local electrician.”

Eric Hannay, who is Clifford’s great-grandson, says in a video on the company’s website, describing the company’s origin, “My great-grandfather just happened to bump into a colleague who delivered kerosene fuel oil and asked if Clifford could help him design a reel to make those deliveries a little easier — and it just sort of branched out from there.”

Hannay Reels has long been the biggest employer in the rural Helderberg town of Westerlo and schoolchildren have been taught lessons about its success.

Eric’s father, the late Roger Hannay, is credited with innovating new methods in product lines and manufacturing techniques at Hannay Reels. He also spoke out on behalf of small family businesses, testifying before Congress and the state legislature on taxes and regulations that affect these businesses.

While Eric Hannay is the company’s chief executive officer and president, his sister, Elaine Hannay Gruener, is the chief operating officer and executive vice president for human resources.

The siblings will step down from their leadership roles in early 2027 after having worked this year with the new leaders from Madison Industries.

Eric Hannay told The Enterprise this week that it was “absolutely” a tough decision to sell the family business.

Why sell?

Asked why Hannay Reels is being sold, Eric Hannay responded by email, “After 93 years of building and growing the business, the family owner-managers decided that this is the right time to responsibly hand the reins over to new ownership and leadership that has the expertise and commitment to ensure this company can continue to grow and prosper. 

“We’re proud of what we’ve built here, with all the credit going to our talented employees and managers, to get to this place, from shipping a handful of reels a year back in the middle of the Great Depression, to now building over 100,000 hose and cable reels each year and exporting to dozens of countries.

“Complexity has increased over time, however, and it became clear that finding a partner with deeper resources, expertise and scale was the best way to perpetuate the legacy and brand.”

Asked why Madison Industries was chosen, Hannay responded, “Successful small and mid-market manufacturers — even ones not in the market for a sale — get approached constantly by interested potential buyers, so there is never a shortage of companies to have conversations with.

“And while Madison along with many other companies have reached out regularly over the years, timing is everything and so you just keep politely saying no unless and until circumstances change and ownership feels ready to have those conversations.

“Madison stood apart from other potential buyers for several reasons. Near the top of the list, they really know our product — reels. Since 2017, they’ve owned another hose reel company and long-time friendly competitor of ours, Reelcraft.

“We cater to different markets and applications, so even though the 2 companies will continue to operate independently, it will be a nice bonus that we can more freely provide referrals in both directions when, for example, there is a particular type of reel that they cannot build, but that we can.

“Beyond knowing the reel business, Madison has a 30-year track record of investing in their brands. Their mission statement is to make the world safer, healthier and more productive, and the products that Hannay Reels builds fit very well with this mission.”

Asked about how the decision to sell was made, Hannay wrote, “The decision to sell is bittersweet for the family. Our great-grandfather Clifford, the founder of Hannay Reels, passed away in 1962, so my sister Elaine and I were both born too late to have known him, but we have been steeped in the history of this place and try to live up to the values he and successive generations believed in and lived out.

“My sister and I will miss the daily interactions with all of our great co-workers when we leave the scene early next year.”

What’s next?

“My sister and I will both be stepping down in early 2027 as part of a carefully planned transition, working for a full year with new senior leadership,” Hannay wrote of himself and Gruener.

“Our successors have been here in Westerlo since January,” he went on, “so the process is already in motion, giving our employees and the new leadership lots of opportunity to get to know each other.”

Asked what changes the 160 Hannay Reels employees could expect after the sale, Hannay wrote, “Little will change after the sale completes next year. The name on the door will remain Hannay Reels, and it will continue to operate in the Town of Westerlo. 

“Madison was in large part attracted to Hannay Reels because of how our well-recognized brand is respected across so many industries, and it knows a key part of our success has been the special culture we’ve built and nurtured here.

“Our management team is staying on and already working closely with our successors. Every employee has already been made aware that existing compensation, benefits and accrued vacation days are endorsed and supported by Madison.

“The nice thing about how this upcoming sale has been planned is that it gives everyone a full year to work side by side and gain comfort with a couple of new faces.”

Hannay concluded, “We all have the same goal — a seamless hand-off for next year.”