American Crane & Equipment

In 1972, a young Norwegian mechanical engineer named Oddvar Norheim crossed the Atlantic in pursuit of the American Dream, and planted his flag in Douglassville, Pennsylvania by co-founding a fledgling crane company. For a decade, his technical expertise helped build something real. But by the early 1980s, the business was teetering on the edge of collapse. When the company needed saving most, Oddvar didn't step aside, but rather stepped up, seized control, and set out to rescue the business he'd helped build.

“We call him our founder because that time in the early 80s was really the start of the American Crane & Equipment Corp. [ACECO] as we know it today,” says Karen Norheim, Oddvar’s daughter and current CEO of ACECO. “And that’s a company that focuses on high quality, niche markets.”

Oddvar recruited his daughter to work for ACECO in the early 2000s, but the idea gave her mixed feelings. “I didn’t really want to do anything with manufacturing at the time,” Norheim says. “But I told him I’d come and give it a shot. And I ended up loving the whole orchestra of it all. It’s the best decision I ever made.” Oddvar passed away in 2021, but Norheim carries his spirit into the company’s culture and day-to-day operations, even featuring Oddvar’s likeness on a colorful mural painted for all passersby to view at ACECO’s corporate headquarters location.

“We’ve doubled in size again since 2021 due to the growth of the nuclear and semiconductor space. It’s been a wild ride, but we’ve really stayed true to what our customers need,” Norheim says. Today, ACECO continues to expand with the largest backlog of orders the company has ever had.

Through decades of growth, ACECO has never strayed far from its roots – the company still operates out of its original Douglassville facility. Pennsylvania has given them everything they've needed to thrive: a strategic location, a hardworking blue-collar workforce, and a business environment that has proven invaluable time and again.

“It’s a pleasure to do business in Pennsylvania,” Norheim says. “The work ethic here – maybe a residual farming ethic based on the history of the state – is perfect for us.” ACECO covets its low employee turnover, but also has doubled down on promoting the company’s culture for recruiting new employees. It also supports STEM programs in local high schools and the Berks campus of Penn State University, which doubles as a pipeline into employment.

Moving forward, Norheim is dedicated to continuing ACECO’s growth trajectory and entering even more high-tech spaces as the market demands. The company recently spun off a technology company, Norlink Solutions, which began as an innovation lab within ACECO that focused on developing cutting-edge solutions for their markets. That resulted in the creation of Smart Crane technology, which helps customers remotely monitor overhead cranes and evaluate vibration and current within the crane itself to ensure the crane is operating properly.

With so much growth and with all signs pointing to a bright future, Norheim is committed to retaining ACECO’s culture. As she describes it, the heritage and values instilled in Norheim from her father have led her to embrace a ‘Viking Gardener’ mentality. “The reason why ACECO is so great is because of our amazing people,” Norheim says. “The original Vikings were farmers and gardeners, so I think of this business like a garden. We want to let awesome people be awesome, and our job as leaders is to cultivate the environment that will empower them to succeed.”

“I always say that grit matters because we’re a group of people that solve complex problems and are able to overcome obstacles in our path – even when that path is hard and difficult.”