Our gear manufacturing journey began in the 1960s, when Rawling Gear was acquired by Samuel T. Haines. The ten-man company served a local New England market for custom gear products. The company grew, renovated and enlarged its facility, and began to look for new opportunities.
In 1973, Sam Haines II joined the firm with a business plan for purchasing “Turn Around” specialty gear shops, and shortly thereafter, Gear Motions was incorporated. Our vision was to develop a regional network of companies whose unique specialties could be leveraged to better serve the wide ranging needs of our customers. Our newly formed organization would be able to bring the management, marketing and financial strengths of larger size while maintaining the unique service aspects of smaller regional shops.
Oliver Gear, in Buffalo, NY, was our first acquisition in 1973, and Nixon Gear was purchased out of bankruptcy in 1978. It was also around this time that Gear Motions began its sales and marketing activities in earnest; developing a national sales force providing coverage from the East Coast to Texas.
In the early 1980s, the Plastic Gearing Services Division was created to provide design and development of high strength plastics gearing for the emerging business machine market. In 1988, Gear Motions acquired Gear Supply and Broaching, a California gear manufacturing company. During the 1990s and early 2000s, these businesses were either consolidated into existing facilities or sold.
In 2005, Gear Motions began one of its biggest transitions in its history, from a privately held company to an Employee Owned Company (ESOP). President Sam Haines, and the Haines family, plan was to begin a ten year ownership transition to assure the companies in Gear Motions remained in the communities that supported them during their history. In 2010 Gear Motions completed its transition to a 100% Employee Owned company. Gear Motions now provides a unique opportunity for our customers to deal directly with our owners. Every person a customer comes in to contact with at Gear Motions is an owner. This is just another way Gear Motions differentiates itself from its competitors.
In 2012, Gear Motions acquired Pro-Gear Co. Inc., a gear grind only manufacturer in Buffalo, NY. This acquisition allowed Gear Motions to add more capability to our group of precision gear manufacturers who seek gear grind only capabilities. Also in 2012, Gear Motions partnered with KBE+, a design and engineering firm specializing in the design, analysis and test services for gear systems and mechanical transmissions. KBE+ specializes in the analysis of gear systems from design, through prototype testing, to manufacture.
In January 2014, Gear Motions acquired Niagara Gear in Buffalo, NY, adding to our family. Niagara Gear manufactures precision ground spur, helical and pump gears for a large and diverse global customer base.
In January of 2023, AutoGear joined the Gear Motions family. Based in Syracuse, New York, Auto Gear specializes in the efficient and economical production of low-volume, custom gearboxes, from design to delivery. With this acquisition, Gear Motions gains expertise in gearbox design and assembly, complementing our existing businesses while allowing us to provide more services and capabilities to our customers.
Gear Motions continues to grow and evolve to meet the ever-changing requirements of our customers and the gear industry. The evolution will never move us away from our core principles and values to provide the highest quality product to our customers through innovation, technology, and superior customer service.
To learn more about the history of each location, click on the links below:
