Pell City's Ford Meter Box Co. acquires Baker Coupling Inc.

Jun 08, 2023

Two Pell City pipe manufacturers are joining forces.

Last month, The Ford Meter Box Co. Inc. acquired certain assets of Baker Coupling Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles, to expand their services in order to manufacture larger pipes.

The joint companies will operate under a shared name, Ford Meter Box and Baker Coupling LLC.

Financial details were not disclosed.

"We make a variety of those products up to about 5 feet in diameter, and (Baker Coupling) makes very similar products, really almost the same products, but they have the ability to make them much bigger 20 to 30 feet in diameter — so it was a natural extension of what we were doing, because it's the same product line, it's just bigger," said Zachary Gentile, senior vice president of Ford Meter Box.

Baker Coupling was founded in 1910 and has manufactured some of the largest pipe couplings, even as long as 27 feet, according to a Ford Meter Box Co. press release. Their other products include pipe fittings, repair clamps and products for water, sewage and industrial systems.

Ford Meter Box Co. was founded in 1891 and has a facility in Indiana in addition to Pell City. The company makes water meter setting and testing equipment, service line valves and fittings and pipeline coupling, repair and restraint products for the waterworks industry and ancillary markets.

The acquisition will move Baker Coupling's Pell City operations to Ford Meter Box's manufacturing center at 815 Miles Parkway and solidify its ability to create a wider variety of American-made pipe and water meter equipment.

"I am extremely pleased that Baker Coupling Co. and Ford Meter Box will join forces after so many decades as respected business partners. The products, cultures and legacies of these two companies are a great match," Baker Coupling President Ram Satyarthi said.

Gentile said Ford is "making every effort where it's possible and where it fits, to give (Baker's employees) opportunities for employment here." He estimated 25 Baker Coupling employees work in Pell City. Ford Meter Box has 160.

The acquisition will give Ford employees greater job security, Gentile said, because it will expand their capabilities to create more products.

"We're here locally in St. Clair County," Gentile said. "You don't call overseas and say, ‘Hey, send me a couple of 20-foot diameter couplings. I need it next week.’ I mean, that's not going to happen. It's pretty much got to be made here, and so we take a lot of comfort in knowing how secure that type of business is. So it's good for our company. It's good for the community."