AIAC AFFILIATE CHAMPLAIN CABLE CELEBRATES 70 YEARS OF INNOVATION AND EXCELLENCE
AIAC AFFILIATE CHAMPLAIN CABLE CELEBRATES 70 YEARS OF INNOVATION AND EXCELLENCE
Insert here the photos of Colchester facility and the photos of the other 5 facilities here in a photo strip right below it.
For Immediate Release
Colchester VT – August 2, 2025 Champlain Cable Corporation, a proud affiliate of AIAC, celebrated its remarkable 70th anniversary today at its headquarters facility in Colchester, Vermont. The milestone celebration honored seven decades of American manufacturing excellence, technological innovation, and unwavering commitment to quality that has made the company a global leader in high-performance wire and cable solutions.
Founded in 1955 by brothers Leroy and Wilford Torville and their partner Marshall Moon as American Super-Temperature Wires, Inc., the company has grown from humble beginnings to become America's premier designer and manufacturer of specialized wire and cable products. The Colchester, VT site, first established in 1965 to serve NASA, including wire for the Apollo Space Program, has remained the company's proud headquarters for six decades. Champlain Cable Corporation also operates extensive manufacturing facilities in El Paso, Stafford and Channelview, TX; and Benton Harbor, Michigan.
Throughout its distinguished history, Champlain Cable has consistently pushed the boundaries of innovation. From supporting America's space exploration efforts in the 1960s to pioneering cables for the telecommunications and automotive industries in the following decades, to light rail, military, marine, general industrial and infrastructure markets, the company has touched millions of lives and transformed nearly every major industry with technologies that have become indispensable across countless applications. The company's proprietary EXRAD® cross-linked irradiation technology sets industry standards for durability, flexibility, and performance in hostile environments.
The company's commitment to research and development has resulted in a portfolio of worldwide patents and trademarks. Champlain Cable's material science and engineering teams continue to innovate state-of-the-art solutions for customers facing the world's most demanding challenges.
As part of the anniversary celebration, Champlain Cable CEO William Reichert recited the following poetic toast, composed by Chairman L. M. Levie in commemoration of the company’s historic milestone:
In honor of the occasion, Chairman L. M. Levie remarked, “Today, we witness something truly extraordinary—Champlain Cable Corporation celebrates its 70th anniversary, marking seven decades of innovation that has literally connected our world and reached for the stars.
From our headquarters in Colchester, Vermont, to our extensive production sites in Texas and Michigan, Champlain Cable has woven itself into the very fabric of human achievement. Our precision-crafted wire and cable solutions haven't just carried electrical current and data—they've brought man to the moon aboard Apollo spacecraft, powered and led the electric vehicle revolution, strengthened the backbone of our Naval fleet, enabled groundbreaking undersea exploration, and formed the vital arteries of countless subways and bridges that millions depend on every day.
This is more than a company milestone—this is a testament to American ingenuity, to the relentless pursuit of excellence, and to the extraordinary people who transform raw materials into the invisible infrastructure that powers our modern world. We have much to be proud of and a bright future ahead.”
Champlain Cable is a Partner of the Explorers Club, a prestigious international multidisciplinary professional society founded in 1904 in New York City. The Explorers Club is dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore.
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About Champlain Cable Corporation
Champlain Cable Corporation traces its origins to 1955 when brothers Leroy and Wilford Torville and their partner Marshall Moon founded American Super-Temperature Wires, Inc. as a subsidiary to Haveg Industries in Winooski, Vermont. The company was initially established to support the aerospace industry, particularly the Mercury, Saturn, and Apollo missions that were developing throughout the decades. In 1965 the company opened a new plant in Colchester, Vermont, with 150 employees working on several NASA contracts, the largest being the wire for the Apollo Space Capsule.
In 1963, the Hercules Corporation acquired American Super-Temp Wires, leading to a significant expansion from a small, old mill building to the current 200,000 square foot facility in Colchester, Vermont. In 1980, Haveg was sold and Hercules renamed the company Champlain Cable. The early to mid-1970s marked a pivotal transformation when Champlain Cable became what it is today, utilizing polymer compounding, chemistry, and the physics of a radiation beam to cross-link polymer insulation materials. This radiation technology, which literally changed the molecular structure of polymer, created a new industrial market for the company, as appliance and motor manufacturers were looking for wire that would endure harsher conditions and last longer than the inferior wires they used in the past.
As the 1970s matured into the 1980s, the company added data communication and telecommunication cables to its product mix, supporting the movement towards local area networks. The 1980s and 1990s were times of excellent growth, with Champlain pioneering cables for the telephone and automotive industries as well as high-speed data transmission. The company made a strategic decision in the 1990s to focus on the automotive market, recognizing a need for wires that could handle hotter engine compartments and smaller spaces where original equipment manufacturers wanted to add more accessories and wires.
In June 2003, Champlain Cable was acquired by an affiliate of American Industrial Acquisition Corporation, from Huber + Suhner, a multinational cable and wire manufacturers, based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Following the 2003 acquisition, the company maintained its three core markets of automotive, industrial, and data communications while adding commercial markets such as buses, agricultural, and heavy equipment vehicles.
Through organic growth and strategic acquisitions, the company expanded from a single site to a total of six production facilities in Vermont, Texas, and Michigan. In 2008, Champlain opened its first facility outside of Vermont with a factory in El Paso, Texas, followed by a second El Paso plant in 2015. In 2017, Champlain acquired a specialty steel manufacturing company in Benton Harbor, MI, renamed Champlain Specialty Metals. In 2021, Champlain Cable acquired Umbilicals International, an undersea cable manufacturer, from the Seanamic Group of Aberdeen, Scotland. Umbillicals maintains production facilities in Stafford and Channelview, Texas.
Today, Champlain Cable is recognized as America's premier innovator, designer and manufacturer of high-performance wire and cable with a 70-year history of providing solutions to the toughest problems in the world's most extreme environments. Chosen by the top electric vehicle manufacturers, Champlain is a recognized leader in high-voltage cables for electric and hybrid vehicles. Their in-house irradiation cross-linking technology allows them to design high performing wire and cable products.
The company now serves multiple specialized markets including automotive, commercial vehicles, military, applications, rail, bridge, and data communications. Their specialty products have been field proven in commercial vehicles and automotive applications over the past 20 years, while their irradiation cross-linked compounds are perfectly suited for US Navy Shipboard use and other demanding military applications.
Champlain has many military specification items for low smoke, halogen-free data communication cables and is a verified vendor for government contracts. Recently, Champlain Cable announced the acquisition of Umbilicals International, a Seanamic Group business, which will maintain its headquarters in Stafford, Texas.
What distinguishes Champlain Cable from larger competitors is their focus on engineered cable areas and environmentally-challenged applications, utilizing their material science and irradiation beam technology. Their research and development department has a global reputation as a leader in developing innovative insulating compounds to solve problems in wire and cable applications in harsh conditions.
Champlain Cable Corporation, with its affiliates AIAC, Bradford Space, Canadian Kraft Paper Industries, and SuperAlloy Manufacturing are proud Partners of the Explorers Club, an American-based, international, multidisciplinary professional society with the mission of promoting and supporting scientific exploration and field study on land, sea, and space.
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About American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC) is a diversified industrial group with 122 manufacturing and distribution sites in 24 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia-New Zealand. AIAC has acquired and grown non-core subsidiaries and divisions of Boeing, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Johnson Controls, Merck, Pfizer, Astellas, Visteon, Carlyle, Ahlstrom, Tolko, Groupe Suez, Groupe Rexel, and many other leading multinational corporations.
AIAC companies serve companies and governmental entities worldwide in all major sectors, including aviation, space, defense, automotive, truck, rail, marine, petrochemical, solar, nuclear, food, confectionary, beverage, civil engineering and infrastructure, commercial construction, mining, dredging, disaster relief, education, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals. In addition, AIAC companies are exclusive, authorized distributors of leading branded industrial and consumer products and serve as critical suppliers for the construction of major airports, schools, hospitals, performing arts and sports centers, offices and hotels throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. AIAC is a leading manufacturer of building, street, and highway signage in Europe, signage and illumination structures in North America, and a distributor of electrical products throughout France.
Of note, AIAC purchased Boeing Canada in 2005 and has produced over 10,000 unique components for every Boeing jet plane ever since, reliably serving Boeing from manufacturing facilities in North America. A leader in ultra-high precision jet engine component manufacturing, AIAC companies produce 2,200 fan blades for each jet engine produced by GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, and Honeywell.
AIAC companies actively support exploration into outer space, manufacturing critical components for launching and propelling spacecraft and satellites. AIAC customers in this sector include NASA, the European Space Agency, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Boeing. AIAC companies also lead in the design and manufacture of undersea umbilical cables for worldwide oceanographic research.
AIAC companies produce the critical automotive wire and cable for Tesla, GM, Ford, Chrysler-Fiat, Toyota, and Nissan. In connection with its kraft paper manufacturing interests in Canada and the US, AIAC controls and sustainably manages 22 million acres of Manitoba, Canada forestland, an area equivalent in size to the nation of Hungary. AIAC affiliate, Metallwarenfabrik Gemmingen GmbH, located in Germany, designs, manufactures and distributes high performance, emergency portable power generators utilized in global conflict zones and during natural disasters.
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About AIAC Philanthropy
AIAC and the AIAC Foundation support a wide range of nonprofit, nonsectarian, bipartisan organizations which promote international conflict resolution, disaster relief, economic development, environmental sustainability, exploration, and the performing arts. The exploration-focused nonprofit organizations which they actively support include the Explorers Club, the National Geographic Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the American Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Space Society, and the United States Space Foundation.
AIAC’s other beneficiaries include the Appeal of the Nobel Peace Laureates Foundation Inc., the Asia Society, the Atlantic Council, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - Gates Philanthropy Partners, the Bretton Woods Committee, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Carter Center, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Economic Club of New York, the Foreign Policy Association, the Institut Française des Relations Internationales, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Crisis Group, the International Rescue Committee, the Japan Society, the JFK School of Government of Harvard University, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), the Sierra Club, the Trilateral Commission, and the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute.
For further information, please see:
https://www.aiac.com/our-values
About the Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is an American-based, international, multidisciplinary professional society with the mission of promoting and supporting scientific exploration and field study on land, sea, and space. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for explorers and scientists worldwide. Members of the club have been the first to explore the North Pole, South Pole, Mount Everest, the Mariana Trench, and to walk on the Moon.
The club's notable current members or honorees include Buzz Aldrin, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Prince Albert II of Monaco, Richard Branson, James Cameron, Ray Dalio, Wendy Schmidt, and Jane Goodall. In years past, prominent members have included President Theodore Roosevelt, Sir Edmund Hillary, Amelia Earhart, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Thor Heyerdahl, Walter Cronkite, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
The Explorers Club’s historic clubhouse, at 46 East 70th Street in New York City, is a museum and monument to the “Famous Firsts,” the greatest explorers and expeditions of all time.
For further information, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_explorers_club
Media Contact:
Isabel Carro-Toro, Vice President
American Industrial Acquisition Corporation
+34 689 295 827 (Spain)
+ 1 787 244 3175 (USA)
icarro-toro@aiac.com