Continental Eagle (Prattville Gin Works)
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Summary

Continental Eagle Corporation was the last operator of the Prattville, Alabama gin factory that traces to Daniel Pratt’s 1840 gin company. It announced in December 2009 that it would move main production to Bajaj Steel Industries in Nagpur, India, and ceased U.S. production in 2012.

Key Facts

  • Type: company (machine builder, ceased U.S. manufacturing)
  • Status: Defunct as a U.S. manufacturer; technology sold to Bajaj Steel Industries (India)
  • Value-chain position: Machine builder (ginning)
  • Operating history: Daniel Pratt Gin Co. (1840) → Continental Gin Company (formed 1899 by merger) → Continental Eagle (last owner from 1986)
  • Peak scale (1860, Pratt firm): about 1,500 gins; 28% of Southern and 25% of U.S. gins; described as the world’s leading gin maker
  • Site afterward: auctioned December 29, 2014 to the Historic Prattville Redevelopment Authority; being converted to apartments (“The Mill at Prattville”)

What It Is / How It Works

Pratt moved his operations to the site in 1839, formed the Daniel Pratt Gin Co. in 1840, and built a three-story brick factory in the early 1850s. In 1899 the company merged with other makers to form Continental Gin Company, which moved its headquarters from Birmingham to Prattville in the 1960s. On December 16, 2009, local radio reported that Continental Eagle would phase out the Prattville plant over the next year, moving main production to India while engineering and marketing stayed. Wikipedia states that U.S. production stopped and the factory closed in 2012, with the business technology sold to Bajaj Steel Industries.

The case matters for reindustrialization because it is a ginning-equipment line, the most domestic part of the machinery chain, that was moved overseas. See Lummus Corporation for the remaining U.S. builder.

Notable Developments

  • 2014-12-29: Buildings and land auctioned to the Historic Prattville Redevelopment Authority.
  • 2012: U.S. production ceased; factory closed (per Wikipedia).
  • 2009-12: Announced move of main production to Bajaj Steel Industries, Nagpur, India.
  • 1986: Continental Eagle became the last owner.
  • 1899: Continental Gin Company formed by merger.
  • 1840: Daniel Pratt Gin Co. formed.

Sources

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