TOPSHAM
Just shy of eight decades in business, a Topsham-based, familyowned construction company has been sold.
After 79 years of ownership under Harry, Frank and Ted Crooker, Harry C. Crooker & Sons has been sold, states a press release issued by the company Monday night.
“The company remains locally owned and operated while retaining all of the employees and the management team, led by Thomas C. Sturgeon, president and CEO,” the release states. “The company will continue to provide the high quality engineering, construction and paving services it has always been noted for” and “remains committed to supporting the state of Maine and all of the local communities it operates in.”
Sturgeon is formerly chief engineer of the company. Ted Crooker has in the past referred to company employees as a family.
According to one employee’s Facebook page, employees found out about the sale Friday afternoon.
The Bangor Daily News reports that Sturgeon said in an email that he is one of the company’s new owners along with a group of local investors, but declined to disclose the sale price or the company’s annual revenue. The BDN also reported that neither Crooker nor Sturgeon “responded to a follow-up question about whether other Crooker-owned companies, such as Maine Gravel Services — which owns gravel pits in six area communities, as well as an asphalt plant in Topsham assessed at $4.7 million — were part of the sale.”
Ted Crooker and Sturgeon did not return phone calls to The Times Record to discuss the sale.
According to the company’s website, “We have a tremendous amount of history and involvement with construction of the entire infrastructure of the greater Mid-coast region. Our main markets include earthwork, utilities, paving and aggregate production, but we have the expertise, equipment and manpower to complete even the toughest projects.” The company also has borrow pits, quarries, crushing facilities and a bituminous pavement production facility.
At age 19, the late Harry Crooker bought a used 1929 Ford Model A dump truck and worked long days building his business up. He had three trucks by 1934 and established Harry C. Crooker and Sons in 1935. He added to the fleet and equipment over the next 40 years, delving into larger and more diverse construction projects, according to www.crooker.com. Harry’s sons Ted and Frank got involved as well and the company grew to about 150 employees, many with decades of experience.
For the 2014 construction season, Crooker is involved in several major on-going projects as listed on its website, including the Bath Iron Works facilities expansion in Bath, Lincoln Academy dormitory construction in Newcastle, Molnlycke Healthcare expansion in Wiscasset, a boatyard storage facility for the Great Island Boat Yard in Harpswell and the bus garage parking lot for School Administrative District 75 in Topsham. Crooker has also completed projects for the Maine Department of Transportation, the Brunswick Sewer District, Bath Water District, towns of Greene, New Gloucester and Brunswick, and many others.
John Shattuck, Topsham’s economic and community development director, said Tuesday that “I think this is good news for both the Crooker family and for the town of Topsham. I certainly have been working with them on and off on what they want to do out there for some time. I’m glad that they found a buyer who can make this possible.”
Shattuck added, “I would commend the Crookers for their care and meticulous search for a buyer who would preserve employees,” which is to the benefit of both those employees and the town. “Not every employer would have done that.”
AT AGE 19, the late Harry Crooker bought a used 1929 Ford Model A dump truck and worked long days building his business up. He had three trucks by 1934 and established Harry C. Crooker and Sons in 1935. He added to the fleet and equipment over the next 40 years, delving into larger and more diverse construction projects.
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