June 2013
| Business World Magazine | 155
product development for a sporting goods
firm.
In Massachusetts, Roderick Jensen had
passed away, passing the torch of Palmer
Foundry leadership to his son, Frank Jensen,
who possessed a certain forward-thinking
on technology and applications in which
aluminum castings could serve. The com-
pany still didn’t have a diversification in in-
dustry service, but it was making inroads.
Meanwhile, after the company Dave Logan
served was sold-out to another firm, he be-
gan seeking other employment, something
which ultimately proved difficult even for a
former professional hockey player with busi-
ness management experience. “It was a very
frustrating time for my brother. He looked at
a lot of jobs, but no one would hire him,” ex-
plains Bob. Dave Logan switched his focus
to go out and purchase his own business. Bob
Logan left his job with the sporting goods
firm to join his brother in the search for a
company. Bob says, “It was a little stressful as
my second daughter had just been born and
there was no income coming in.”
Dave identified a private equity group
that agreed to back him, and after an exhaus-
tive search for a company which had all the
right ingredients for growing success, we pur-
chased Palmer Foundry. As Bob says, “We
saw the foundry and we really liked Frank
Jenson. We liked the people that worked
there and their work ethic. We also like the
technology side of the business and the mar-
ket it was serving. We felt that it had a lot of
potential.”
As part of their acquisition of the compa-
ny, the brothers funded an expansion project
which would lead to the opening of a new,
larger facility on the same ten-acre site. The
new facility was about 80 percent complete
when tragedy struck. A fire swept through
