100% Employee Owned, Founded 1954

Cross Company’s Automation Group Moving to Historic Loray Mill

Greensboro, NC, May 17, 2019 – Cross Company, a 100% employee owned company providing technologies to improve machine and manufacturing process performance, announced today that it had signed a lease agreement to move their Automation Group to the historic Loray Mill in Gastonia, North Carolina.

Joseph Lenihan, the Managing Member of the Loray Mill Redevelopment group stated, “We are so excited to have a company with the level of professionalism and ingenuity of Cross Company coming to work here, in the Mill.  This arrangement will be the first-time actual manufacturing and production of a product are brought back into this historic building.  The 40-50 Cross employees together with our existing group of tenants and residents here are bringing real life back into the Mill and Gastonia, as a whole.  We could not be more pleased with our agreement.”

The brokers on the transaction were Mr. Bob Clay of Coldwell Banker Commercial MECA, who represents Loray Mill and Mr. Don Moss and Chris Neal of Colliers International, representing Cross Company.

“The Loray Mill is an excellent venue to grow and nurture our Automation Group,” said Dan Hines, Director of Operations for Cross Company.   “It was a priority to remain in Gaston County and quite simply, the Loray Mill was the best choice for our unique needs.”

Cross Company’s Automation Group is made up of three business units: electro-mechanical motionpneumatic motion and robotics.  Each team has engineers, customer service representatives and administrative functions who will move to the new facility.

The Loray Mill is a 116-year-old historic textile mill that was redeveloped by the Loray Redevelopment LLC team from 2013-2015.  The Mill is the largest historic textile mill in the south with 600,000 sq. ft and currently has 440,000 sq. ft remodeled into 189 residential apartment units and 85,000 sq. ft. of commercial retail space.  This new agreement will put Loray’s commercial leasing at approximately 50,000 sq. ft. leased to date.  The residential portion of the building has been running at over 94% occupied for two straight years.  The development team plans to add another 105 residential units to the building starting construction later this year.

About Cross Company 
Founded in 1954, Cross Company is one of the oldest ESOP companies in the United States. Cross has five other divisions – Mobile Hydraulics, Instrumentation, Process Control Integration, Hose & Fittings and Precision Measurement & Calibration. The company is headquartered in Greensboro, NC with major divisional offices in Whitsett, NC, Asheville, NC and Knoxville, TN.


If you are interested in working with our automation group on a solution for your operation, contact us today to discuss your project with an automation expert!

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In the meantime, enjoy these fun facts…

Did you know… Cross Company is an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). Our ESOP started in 1979 and as of 2006, we are 100% employee-owned! Learn more about our ESOP and how that benefits both team members and our customers.
Did you know... the precision measurement group at Cross was founded in 1939 by our current CEO's grandfather, Jim King. That's a whole lot of calibration!
Did you know... A fingerprint weighs about 50 micrograms. We know, we weighed it! The residue left from a finger can actually make a difference in weight results which is why we wear gloves when we calibrate weights. For reference, a sheet of paper is about 4.5 grams, that’s 4.5 million micrograms.
Did you know… Cross Company has grown significantly since our start in 1954. Over the years we've acquired 26 companies! Today, our five groups have expertise in everything from industrial automation to precision measurement, and industry knowledge going all the way back to 1939.