In 1879, C.A. Lawton and his uncle, E.W. Arndt, began manufacturing a bran dressing machine (separating bran from flour) under the name Novelty Manufacturing Co. in De Pere, Wisconsin. During the industrial boom of the early 1880s, they expanded capabilities to include pattern making, an iron foundry, machining, and engineering design. This basic model of a machinery and machine component manufacturing company has been maintained ever since.

They continued manufacturing together until a panic and the Jones Bank failure in 1886, when C.A. Lawton personally reorganized the business with financial support of local businessmen and changed the name to The C.A. Lawton Co. During this period, the company became a major supplier of mechanical power transmission machinery to Midwest manufacturers. This capability served as the touchstone for the business for more than a century.

While much has changed in manufacturing since our company began, family ownership and management has been a source of stability and consistent leadership. Today Alex Lawton, the current CEO and president, is the fifth-generation owner-manager. And our company is still based on values of honesty, caring about employees and customers, continual improvement of products and processes, and business success.

In 2000, economic globalization changed the previously successful business models of our various entities. The industrial markets we had served changed their buying practices and priorities, and we took the next step in our evolution.

In 2006, we integrated all of our business entities – manufacturing, casting, machining, patterns, engineering and pressure vessels – into a single business and rationalized the general and administrative expenses. We have changed our approach to servicing the North American paper industry, sold our Plastics Machinery Division, and focused manufacturing resources on industry sectors that are aligned with our capabilities, including agriculture, HVAC, oil and gas, off highway, paper, gas turbine, wind, mining and water.

Today our success is built on delivering quality gray and ductile iron castings from 500 to 15,000 pounds, associated pattern tooling, and machined components that meet our customer requirements.