A ribbon cutting was held on February 9th to kick off the centennial celebration for Peerless.


Manufacturing Peerless chain on June 10, 1944.


However, shortly after the company was incorporated,


Joe and Al also became brothers in arms, entering the military together to serve their country during WWI. By the time they’d returned, Peerless—under the leadership of Dick—had brought John B. Bambenek (father of the three men) into the fold. In 1920, just a few years after the company was founded, Dick championed a stock sale that generated the capital required for the company to purchase its first two machines—an automatic diamond link former and an automatic four-slide former to manufacture the cross-chain hooks needed for tire chains. Tis new


equipment led to an increase in production capacity, which then led to the need for a new facility. So Peerless rented the back half of the former Park Brewery Bottling Works—the location that would become the base of Peerless operations for the next 50 years.


Growth Through New Products Automotive chains had provided a solid business foundation for Peerless since the beginning, but they knew there was an entire market they’d yet to tap—the industrial market. So in 1939, as the Second World War was breaking out, Peerless began to manufacture and


WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE MARCH–APRIL 2017 33


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