Business View Magazine - October 2018

298 299 where it runs today in Garden Grove, California. In 1995, Catalina purchased Parker Hannifin’s Cliff Impact facilities, and in 1997, Catalina relocated the Cliff facilities to Hampton, Vir- ginia, moving into a vacant Mercedes-Benz truck-assembly plant, to create the Catalina Cylinders Cliff Impact Division. Throughout the following decade, Catalina Cylin- ders grew to become a leading global supplier in the aluminum cylinder industry with facilities located on both the East and West coasts. Over this time, much of Catalina’s old equipment was improved and newer, more efficient equipment was added. In 2000, the adjacent industrial build- ing was acquired which doubled the footprint of the Garden Grove facility. A small, high-speed press was soon brought online for producing small medical cylinders, and eventually a 3,500-ton press was installed to pro- duce the largest of Catalina’s aluminum cylinders. The company’s portfolio expanded and included cylinders for the markets of SCUBA, industrial gas, specialty and calibration gas, beverage CO2, medical oxygen, fire & rescue, ni- CATALINA CYLINDERS DAVID SILVA VP OF SALES AND MARKETING trous oxide, low pressure cylinders, and technical impacts. In 2009, APP and Catalina Cylinders became an ESOP company (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). By this time, Catalina had grown from 12 to over 250 employees, and had secured a 230,000-sq.-ft. footprint between Garden Grove, CA and Hamp- ton, VA. In 2014, Catalina launched development of its new composite-wrapped cylinder division, Catalina Composites. Its new 107,000 sq. ft. facil- ity utilizes state-of-the-art equipment, and pro- duces Type 3 cylinders for the Alternative Fuels industry (up to 26” diameter), which is a relatively new market for the company and a big part of its future growth strategy. In February 2015, Catalina Cylinders Inc. split off to become its own corporate entity, and sister company to Aluminum Precision Products. “Cata- lina was acquired by APP in 1992, which ran it as a division till 2015,” reports Company Vice Pres- ident of Sales and Marketing, David Silva. “Now, we’re sister companies with APP rather than a subdivision.We did that because of our ESOP, and so that our employees, as shareholders, are directly aligned with the corporate entity.As the value of the business grows, the value of their ESOP grows, so what they put in, they get back out.” Today, Catalina continues to be a leading man- ufacturer of high and low pressure aluminum, compressed gas cylinders. The company’s pro- duction capacity is split evenly between its East and West coast USA facilities, which collectively