60 plus years of experience

Prince Manufacturing Corporation had its beginnings in a small machine shop on Water Street in Sioux City, Iowa in 1941. The company, then known as Prince Hydraulics, was started by John Prince. His son, Richard, incorporated the business in September 1950 with a contract for 100 simple, single-acting hydraulic cylinders. John became the first president, and co-founders Arthur C. Gall, and F. John Roost became Vice President and Secretary/Treasurer, respectively. In its infancy, the company made welded style cylinders primarily for the agricultural market as well as truck and trailer.

From 1950 to 1963, Prince added manufacturing space in a small two-room garage on George Street and a 19,700 square foot building on Division Street. In November 1963 Prince moved its operations to a larger 50,000 square foot facility at 3100 Correctionville Road that once housed the operations of North American Manufacturing (makers of Grain-O-Vators & Namco Forklifts). Eighteen employees were added to the payroll that year, increasing the number of workers to sixty. Along with the new space, Prince installed a new, state-of-the-art, hard chrome plating plant along with polishing and accessory equipment. This gave Prince a competitive edge over much of its competition and helped to diversify its market base. By 1965, 15 years after its incorporation, Prince Manufacturing Corporation`s employment levels had climbed to 107.

Plans were announced in May 1967, to build a new facility in Walthill, Nebraska. This plant, which was located on the Omaha Indian Reservation, made agricultural, tie-rod style cylinders for OEM, Distributor, and Private Label accounts and was called Omahaline Hydraulics. By 1970, Prince and its Omahaline Hydraulics division employed 225 people.

In 1971, Prince opened up Prince Hydraulics Western Warehouse located in Reno, Nevada (since closed) to assist in distributor sales to the western United States and Mexican markets. In 1973 a new 100,000 square foot production facility along with a 9,000-sq. ft. office building was built at 4600 South Lewis Blvd., in Sioux City, Iowa. Manufacturing at the Correctionville Road facility as well as the corporate headquarters were moved to this new facility.

During 1977, a new facility, Hydraulic Components Industries, was established in Hartington, Nebraska. This 40,000 square foot facility housed the newly acquired assets of Douglass Hydraulics of Omaha, Nebraska, a manufacturer of hydraulic valves. Hydraulic Components Industries manufactures tie-rod cylinders, directional control valves, flow control valves and other types of specialty valves. Sales tripled from 1967 to 1977. In 1978, Art Gall retired and Roland Junck became president. By 1979, the Hartington plant doubled its size to 80,000 square feet to meet increasing cylinder demands as well as produce its newly developed PTO pump line.

A 17,500 square foot building was purchased in South Sioux City, Nebraska to house Prince Distributor Services, Inc. in 1980. This facility was set up to warehouse inventory for the growing distributor market as well as house a new Research and Development Laboratory. From 1981 to 1983, Prince invested in new product development to diversify its product offerings to a more diverse market.

September of 1986, Prince purchased the Adan Hydraulic Company, which was a manufacturer of hydraulic motors. This company was moved to the Walthill facility to compete in the 90 million-dollar hydraulic motor industry. In addition, a licensing agreement was finalized with Shimadzu from Japan to manufacture hydraulic gear type pumps in the United States.

In 1988, Omahaline Hydraulics was moved to a new 49,000 square foot building in North Sioux City, South Dakota. 56 new employees were hired for the larger facility. Omahaline Hydraulics manufactures “A” and “B” flange gear pumps, PTO pumps and high speed low torque motors. In 1990, Dakota Mobile Hydraulics, a 2.75 million-dollar plant opened in Brookings, South Dakota to build telescopic cylinders and heavy-duty single-stage cylinders up to 15-inch bore. The third expansion for Hydraulic Components Industries happened in 1996. The new expansion brought the plant size to 125,000 square feet.

Prince moved into a new corporate office building in 1997 at their location in North Sioux City, South Dakota. That same year, to accommodate the ever-increasing demand for small bore cylinders, a new facility was opened in Yankton, South Dakota called Lewis and Clark Hydraulics. The 40,000 square foot facility builds welded cylinders up to 4” in diameter.

In 2004, Prince opened a new Engineering and Technology Center next to the corporate headquarters. This facility allowed for growth in the Engineering and Information Technology departments to support the needs of an ever-growing customer base.

Prince - Cast Iron Housing Hydraulic PTO Pump