Baldor & Leeson - Two Companies - One Origin
October 09, 2015
When it comes to manufacturing electrical motors, generator sets, AC and DC stock motors and control solutions, two companies stand tall above the rest of the industry in terms of overall US sales and those are Baldor Electric Company and LEESON Electric Corporation.
How these companies came to be is a story that most people aren’t aware of.
Baldor Electric Company was the first company of these two interlocking electrical motor companies. Baldor was founded in 1920 by Edwin Ballman and Emil Doerr. These two friends, who had worked in the electrical motor industry together, realized that they could create a superior product to any on the market so they joined forces. Their main objective was to build a motor that used less electricity and therefore was more efficient.
The two innovators combined their last names Ballman and Doerr to create Baldor. Their operations were centered St. Louis Missouri, where they quickly revolutionized the creation of electric motors.
In 1939 three of Emil’s Doerr’s sons, one of them named Lee, created Doerr Electric. Their plan was to continue building on the work their father had been doing for two decades.
As if having two generations in the motor industry wasn’t already an impressive feat, in 1972, Lee Doerr’s three sons founded a new company to build on what their father and grandfather had already accomplished. The name LEESON comes from the idea that they were Lee’s sons.
To say that the Doerr family loves to create more efficient electric motors would be an understatement. Electric motors run through the Doerr family’s blood, and never once have they ever relaxed to live off of the fruit of their labors. Every day they strive to create more efficient motors just like Emil Doerr did when he started Baldor with his partner in St. Louis, Missouri.
Baldor Electric Company has 23 locations worldwide in which they manufacture various types of electrical motors, including grinders, DC/AC servos, gearmotors, etc. They also produce gear reducers, bearing, generators and many more products.
LEESON Electric Corporation specializes in electric motors, gearmotors and drives. They also manufacture a variety of accessories and kits.
It’s not easy to find a company in the modern world that can trace its roots back to 1920, when the United States was still a young country finding its way in the world. It’s even harder to find a company that started with one man and had its tradition carried on by his sons and grandsons. Baldor Electric Company and LEESON Electric Corporation are a true American, family-run, business that has been rooted in the United States for nearly a century. Not only do they create superior products, they are companies to be trusted and companies to root for.