Andrew Corporation

Andrew Corporation is a leading global supplier of equipment, systems and services for communications markets. To achieve long-term growth, the company will continue building on its key strengths: market leadership, customer orientation, breadth of product line, global presence, financial strength, and productivity. Key Dates: Victor J. Andrew begins making equipment for the directional antennas used by AM radio broadcasters. Scientific Communications, Inc., and Kintec Corp., makers of military communications equipment, are acquired. The Antenna Company, maker of wireless antennas and accessories, is acquired; revenues of $869.5 million are recorded. As part of another major restructuring, 880 members of the workforce are cut. Andrew Corporation is an international supplier of communications equipment, systems, and services. Among the company's principal products are coaxial cable, connectors, and systems used in various telecommunications systems; a variety of antennas and antenna systems, including microwave antenna systems and special application antennas used in cellular systems, navigation, FM and television broadcasting, multipoint distribution services, instructional television, radar systems, and surveillance systems; and wireless accessories, including portable antennas, batteries, battery chargers, paging accessories, and hands-free kits. About 57 percent of revenues are generated in the area of coaxial cable systems and bulk cables. Andrew has eight manufacturing plants in the United States and additional factories in Canada, Australia, Scotland, Brazil, China, and India; nearly half of revenues stem from products exported from the United States or manufactured abroad. The company was founded as a sole proprietorship in 1937, when 34-year-old engineer Victor J. Andrew began to manufacture equipment for the directional antennas used by AM radio broadcasters. Andrew received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1932, and then worked at the Army Signal Corps Laboratories in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and at Westinghouse in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. Andrew soon returned to Chicago to go into business for himself, renting a bungalow on the city's southwest side where he installed a modest array of tools and equipment. His first sales were for custom designed phasing, tuning, and transmission line equipment for AM radio, though Andrew also offered his services as an engineering consultant to broadcast antenna users. Andrew had intended to make consulting the major part of his business, but World War II brought with it a ban on new broadcast station construction, and so he had little consulting work to do. Andrew concentrated instead on manufacturing, developing a number of new products and achieving significant sales of phasing and tuning equipment and of coaxial cables and rigid coaxial lines. A strong demand for broadcast products spurred the company's initial growth, and the company moved to new quarters in the same Chicago neighborhood several times in its first ten years. During World War II, Andrew received large orders from the military for coaxial cables and later for dry air pumps which the Air Force used to pressurize airborne radar pods. After the war, Andrew continued its ties to the military, supplying coaxial transmission line which was used to monitor nuclear blast testing both above and below ground. In 1947 the company was incorporated as Andrew Corporation, with Victor Andrew installed as board chairman and CEO, and his wife Aileen named president. That same year, Andrew bought 430 acres of undeveloped land in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park--the clear land being necessary for outdoor testing of antennas--and eventually the company built its manufacturing and management facilities there as well. Andrew Corporation began making and marketing microwave antennas for both civilian and military communications in 1949, and Cold War demand for Andrew's products during the 1950s kept the comp