A longtime manufacturing company in Pleasantville has been sold to Roser Technologies Inc. (RTI) of Titusville.
Vertical Seal Company, a business that provides specialty manufactured components and services to the steel industry, was purchased from Ampco-Pittsburgh Corp. The Pleasantville company was a division of Akers National Roll Co., an indirect subsidiary of Ampco.
The acquisition by RTI will keep the 54 full-time employees on the job at Vertical Seal. In addition, manufacturing operations at the plant will continue uninterrupted.
Roser Technologies was founded by Roser, an Oil City native, and his family in 2001. The plant, located at 347 Industrial Drive in Titusville, lists an employee roster of 96.
The Roser company provides continuous caster maintenance services to major steel producers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and designs, manufactures and refurbishes caster mold and segment components as well as other elements required to make steel.
‘A very valuable name’
Vertical Seal was established in 1949 and is located at 162 Chapman Road in Pleasantville.
“The company has a reputation for producing high quality products and that fits Roser Technologies’ core values,” said Roser. “Vertical Seal will be a division of RTI. It has a very valuable name in the industry and is a very good company. We want to maintain that identity.”
Combined, the merged companies will boast an employee count of 150, said Roser.
In the purchase agreement, RTI bought the Vertical Seal name and all assets, said the new owner.
“We are all one company now,” said Roser. “We can cut costs – like sharing resources such as trucking services – and strengthen our companies together.”
‘Keep our people here’
The key to Roser’s decision to buy Vertical Seal was a keen sense of preserving communities, he said.
“All these employees live within this area. So that is 150 people buying groceries, paying taxes, raising families and more. Our people come from Titusville, Oil City, Franklin, Tionesta. And, our businesses are at an awesome location because we are within a few hours of the major steel companies in Pennsylvania,” said Roser. “The entire goal here is to keep our communities strong, keep our people here. I think this business deal helps do that.”
