One of the new owners of Portland’s Gunderson Marine & Iron shipyard has sold his stake to his business partner, but both say the business remains on solid footing.
Two Portland industrialists, Dee Burch and Terry Aarnio, bought the Northwest Portland operation last year after The Greenbrier Cos. transferred railcar manufacturing to other parts of the country and exited the barge business.
The new owners sought to revive the barge business and expand into other marine construction. Burch said Gunderson Marine won $200 million in contracts within six months, including a barge to supply McMurdo Station in Antarctica, an 800-ton structure at Pearl Harbor for the U.S. Navy, a drydock on the same site and other large government and private marine contracts.
Employment grew from around 300 at the time they bought Gunderson, Burch said, to about 340 now.
The growth triggered a split among the partners, though. Burch said he favored a slower expansion while Aarnio, former owner of Oregon Iron Works, suggested they should capitalize on their initial success and adopt a more ambitious growth plan.
Unable to reconcile their differences, Burch said he agreed to buy Aarnio’s stake.
“We certainly had different visions of where we wanted to be in three to five years,” Aarnio said.
Two owners with different goals risked pulling the company apart, Aarnio said, so he agreed to sell his stake. But he said he remains supportive of Burch’s endeavor and was scheduled to introduce him to a potential customer Friday afternoon.
“We’re wishing him all the best,” Aarnio said. “It’s an amicable agreement that we reached.”
Even at a measured pace, Burch said he expects the business will continue adding jobs in the months ahead.
“We’ve found a ton of people that are incredibly interested,” Burch said. He said he’s hoping to demonstrate that people can still make a career in manufacturing, whether or not they have college degrees.
“We believe we have enough business opportunities to keep them employed,” Burch said, “so they don’t have to worry about being laid off and starting over again.”
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