Interstate Engineering Sold in Management-Led Buyout

Interstate Engineering, a vacuum cleaner maker with 140 employees and $25 million in annual sales, has been sold in a management-led buyout, company President Lee Zobel said.

The nearly all-cash sale by parent Figgie International Inc. to an investment group sponsored by Engles Urso Capital Corp. of Dallas won’t affect employment, Zobel said.

“Frankly, we’re delighted. Management participated in this and we’re very excited. Figgie has been a troubled company for some time, and it affected our business,” he said.

Ohio-based Figgie, a diversified manufacturer with $360 million in sales last year, said the deal wraps up a yearlong corporate reorganization. Figgie still owns Interstate Electronics, an Anaheim defense and commercial electronics company with about 750 employees.

Interstate Engineering manufactures residential vacuum cleaners that are sold by independent distributors through a direct sales organization. The company, founded in Los Angeles in 1937, moved to Anaheim in the mid-1950s and was acquired by Figgie in 1967.

Zobel said about 40% of Interstate’s revenue comes from sales in Japan.--JOHN O’DELL