A Story of Allis-Chalmers in the 20th Century (part 2)

After World War II, sales for Allis-Chalmers were reduced temporarily but they still posted excellent sales numbers. in 1947 they had 211,949, 890 dollar’s worth of orders but that number would once again rebound to 350 million dollars worth of orders, even exceeding their WW2 high of 305 million dollars in 1944. The company had repeated union problems and eventually they signed an agreement with the local 248 Union on June 30th 1950, which covered pensions, cost of living wage adjustments and expanded vacation with-pay programs. In 1951, president of the company during the 1930s and World War II, Walter Geist died and was replaced by W.A Roberts who took the company in a new direction. Under his leadership the company went international starting in 1957 eventually building 12 new plants worldwide keeping the companies headquarters in Milwaukee. Buying up multiple already existing companies worldwide such as Industrial Dufernex S.A of Mexico and Thomas C. Pollardy Pty. Ltd of Newcastle Australia. They also expanded domestically, purchasing the Valley Iron Works of Appleton, Wisconsin and the S. Morgan Smith Company of Pennsylvania for steam turbines in 1959. Although it seemed like the company was prospering going into the 1960s, the company would suffer setbacks that would put into question its very existence.

Source: An Industrial Heritage, Allis-Chalmers Corporation, Walter Fritiof