General Cable is an American multinational cable manufacturing company based in Highland Heights,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virgini ...

, with sales offices and manufacturing facilities in several countries. General Cable manufactures and distributes

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It h ...

, and optical fiber cables which are frequently used in the construction, industrial, specialty and communications sectors. In December 2017, Prysmian acquired General Cable for a $3 billion deal finalized on June 6, 2018.

History

General Cable was found in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

in 1927, merging several older companies founded in the 19th century, including Phillips Wire and Safety Cable Company, Rome Wire Company, and Standard Underground Cable. General Cable was owned by

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and th ...

from 1981 to 1992.

Products

For the energy, construction, industrial, specialty, and communications sectors, General Cable manufactures copper and aluminum wire, optical fiber, and electrical cable products. Low-, medium-, and high-voltage power distribution and power transmission devices are among the company's power cables. Applications for traditional and renewable electrical power production, mining, industrial automation, automotive, maritime, and transit, as well as military, aerospace, and OEM applications, all use General Cable's application-specific industrial and specialty cables. Low-voltage signals for phone, data, video, and control applications are transmitted through the company's communications wire and cable products. Several brands are used by General Cable to market its products.

Corporate information

Logo

When General Cable officially formed in 1927, the company introduced its first

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from oth ...

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordm ...

, declaring a unified corporate identity to its customers,

investors An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

suppliers In commerce, a supply chain is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products to customers through a distribution system. It refers to the network of organizations, people, activ ...

, and associates. Since the original 1927 version, the company's

has been modified five times. Today, the trademarked logo consists of the "General Cable" stylized black text with a green "

Reuleaux triangle A Reuleaux triangle is a curved triangle with constant width, the simplest and best known curve of constant width other than the circle. It is formed from the intersection of three circular disks, each having its center on the boundary of the ...

" on the left, which is a modernized version of the 1927

symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. Symbols allow people to go beyond what is known or seen by creating linkages between otherwise very different conc ...

Locations

General Cable's

global headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top ...

is located in Highland Heights,

. This facility, which also serves as the North American headquarters and employs approximately 400 associates, has been operating since 1992. General Cable operates internationally, with regional business operations in North America,

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

, and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

. The company has a global network of manufacturing facilities in core markets, with sales representation and distribution worldwide.

Employees

In 2016, General Cable employed 11,000 associates working in manufacturing plants, distribution centers,

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scie ...

centers, sales offices, and

corporate headquarters Corporate headquarters is the part of a corporate structure that deals with important tasks such as strategic planning, corporate communications, taxes, law, books of record, marketing, finance, human resources, and information technology. Corpo ...

for the development,

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...

, manufacture,

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to empha ...

, and

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

, and

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparency and translucency, transparent fiber made by Drawing (manufacturing), drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a Hair ...

wire and cable products. In June 2013, General Cable placed 17th among the 40 top midsized (150 to 499 employees) companies in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region. Subcategories included company direction,

managers Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

, execution, pay and benefits, career, and conditions.

Foreign bribery

In 2016, the company was ordered to pay over $75 million to resolve both SEC and Department of Justice investigations into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for making illicit payments to government officials in Africa and Asia.

References

{{Reflist Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Campbell County, Kentucky Manufacturing companies based in Kentucky Electronics companies established in 1927 Wire and cable manufacturers 1927 establishments in New Jersey 2018 mergers and acquisitions American subsidiaries of foreign companies