Bailey bridges hydraulics and electronics

The acquisition of Hydrolico enabled Bailey to expand its hydraulic product portfolio. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

Over the 50 years since its founding by Adrian and Mary Bailey in Owosso, Mich., Bailey International has evolved from a surplus distribution house to a global manufacturer and supplier of hydraulic components and electronics. Now headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., the company has roughly 340 employees with manufacturing, distribution and engineering locations in the U.S., Canada and India.

The growth has come both organically and through key acquisitions.

Ken Baker, CEO, Bailey International

“We have been known for hydraulic cylinders, both from a surplus side then getting into manufacturing of hydraulic cylinders,” said Ken Baker, CEO, Bailey International. “We have always distributed other hydraulic products but had a real focus on cylinders as the most common actuator that’s in a hydraulic circuit.”

Then, in 2015, the company acquired Sure Grip Controls, a specialist in joysticks and other electronic controls based in Victoria, British Columbia. This was followed a few years later by the June 2022 acquisition of Hydrolico International, a move that brought with it manufacturing facilities in Montreal (Terrebonne), Québec, Canada, and Walker, Mich., in the U.S.

“[We recognized] that we needed to do a better job of servicing a broader range of products to our customers with both electronic controls and more focus on expanding our hydraulic offerings,” Baker said. “Hydrolico brought us a lot of technical strength in other hydraulic products. They sold cylinders but they were stronger in valves, motors, pumps, manifolds – other products that we’ve now classified as our MVP (Motors, Valves, Pumps).”

Initially marketed as standalone brands, as of January 2025, Bailey International, Sure Grip Controls and Hydrolico are all united under the Bailey brand identity, forming one single, cohesive entity.

Fingertip to Tool Tip

As the company grew, Bailey adopted a “Fingertip to Tooltip” strategy.

“When we talk about Fingertip to Tooltip, we talk about the electronic components all the way to the tool that’s touching the ground itself, and that goes through to the hydraulic process and subsystems, as well,” said Chris Rowley, vice president of Hydraulics at Bailey.

Chris Rowley, vice president of Hydraulics, Bailey International

With its acquisition of Hydrolico, Bailey became closer to completing that Fingertip to Tooltip “journey,” he said, by adding components such as manifolds and additional valves and motors into the portfolio. “It broadened our breadth of products, but it also brought us closer to the electronic side.”

This is proving essential as the mobile equipment industry increasingly shifts to electrohydraulic solutions.

“We have often found that our customers don’t have hydraulic problems and they don’t have electrical problems in isolation. A lot of times, they’re trying to bring those systems together,” Darren Lockyer, Bailey’s vice president of Electronics, explained. “We realized that in order to mirror the needs of our customer, we needed to bring together these different product categories – hydraulic motors, electronic joysticks – to kind of feed the whole scheme that they have on a piece of equipment.

“We’re definitely responding to industry trends in terms of electrification,” he added, “having more efficient hydraulic systems and partnering with some of the best partners in the world from a supply [standpoint to be] able to solve customers’ problems.”

Integration requires education

With its portfolio expansion, Bailey established a group of sales application specialists (SAS), which operate out of the Montreal facility.

Darren Lockyer, vice president of Electronic, Bailey International

“They’re experts in their field, in hydraulics and electronics, and we almost treat them as a SWAT team that goes along with our salespeople to be able to answer some of the more technical and highly complex problems,” Lockyer said. “Then, we’re able to inject the solutions, the products that we have to help meet the customer’s needs.”

The SAS group has also been tasked with educating various segments of Bailey’s operations on the technical aspects of new product categories as they’re introduced.

“We want to make sure that not just our sales leaders, but our salespeople, our inside sales folks, our technical support team, all have a high level of understanding of those new product categories,” said Rowley. “It’s exciting to bring something new in. We just want to make sure that everybody’s trained on it so that we can answer questions and support our customers.”

Education on the new capabilities that come with those products is essential, as well. Baker cites custom manifolds as an example – a capability gained with the addition of the engineering team in Terrebonne and Grand Rapids.

“Integrating those within your engineering processes is critical to make sure that the whole team has access to the capabilities to do that,” Baker emphasized. “So, the product education, service education and the engineering education are equally important.”

Listen and learn

Another crucial part of the learning process is looking beyond the obvious to understand what customers really need.

“Oftentimes, when you engage with customers, listening and being curious can take you a long way in understanding what the customer’s actual challenge is,” Lockyer said. “It could be an evolution of a product. It could be a product that we don’t have today that we need to develop for them. Then that gets into more of a partnership and understanding of what their needs are and how can we respond.”

Bailey is now able to offer custom manifolds that integrate multiple components into a single, compact unit. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

“We’re not trying to force fit our solution into their problem,” Baker assured. “We’re trying to listen to what their problem is. But I think we’ve also been trying to do a lot better job over the last three years of bringing together whole solutions.”

For example, Bailey’s sales team was working with a customer that utilized the company’s joysticks and handles. During the discussion, Rowley said, “The salesperson was curious enough to ask, ‘Well, what are you hoping to drive? What are the pinch points? What causes problems now?’ And the next thing you know, it ends up instead of just being a joystick… it’s a complete armrest and the components are now in the armrest.”

In this case, the customer was utilizing Bailey hydraulic and electrohydraulic components, and Bailey was able to adapt a complete control solution for them.

“We’ve had a number of other customers where we’re doing the opposite. We’re already selling them control solutions on the joystick or handle side, and now we’re offering hydraulic manifolds, hydraulic valves, hydraulic cylinders into their solution,” Baker said. “We have a broader offering for our customers, and I think that gives us a lot of flexibility but also a lot of ability to solve more problems for them. And they appreciate that.”

Mirroring customer needs

Bailey has implemented a CRM system and a sales pipeline process to enable the company to engage with the customer from initial idea to implementation of a project – a process that involves a high level of engagement with the customer’s engineering, quality and procurement staffs. Bailey can also work with a customer to develop new prototypes of an existing product. In either case, infield support is available from an application perspective, Lockyer pointed out.

The aim is to be adaptable to “mirror what the customers needs are,” he said. Where large Tier 1 OEMs may have their own engineering teams to manage the design of the equipment and subcomponents, smaller manufacturers may need additional expertise to support them. “So, we have a fairly broad way that we could meet the customer where they are in terms of their needs, both from a hydraulics and electronics perspective,” Lockyer said.

The Sure Grip Controls acquisition formed the foundation of Bailey’s electronics group. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

“Our sweet spot,” Baker said, “is where we can offer technical support, engineering, inventory services and other things to that customer that they may not have the complexity or the maturity to deal with.”

Further expansion ahead

As Bailey International looks to the future, education will remain a core focus to enable it to solve ever more complex technical problems for its customers.

“The continued increase in our technical education across our business, not only in our sales staff but in our SAS staff and our engineering staff and in our company on the production floors is going to be critical,” Baker stated. “We know that the technology is only going to increase – it’s electrification, it’s sensors, it’s other products that are going to come… So, we always keep our eye out for that, and we’re working hard to make sure that we maintain a strong educational component in our company across the business.”

Baker predicts further expansion of the product portfolio, as well. “We’ll continue to evolve our manufacturing and our distribution sides. On the manufacturing side, it’s going to evolve probably through acquisitions of like product,” said Baker.

“We don’t want to simply bulk up and do a lot more of the same thing. We want to make sure that the breadth of what we bring to the market is broader because of our acquisitions and/or our distribution expansion.”

Further opportunities will evolve as electrification and the application of AI, vision systems and autonomy become increasingly prevalent. “I don’t necessarily see us being on the bleeding edge of those technologies but certainly commercializing them and bringing those to market in the future is something that’s realistic to be part of our world,” Lockyer asserted.

Even as the company looks ahead to new opportunities, its history in hydraulics is expected to continue.

“We often talk about the fundamentals of hydraulics, and what it can do for [OEMs] is a pretty astounding phenomenon. We don’t see that going away,” Lockyer stated. “But it needs to evolve to marry up with the new efficiencies and propel humanity forward. We need to continue to be ready to satisfy and meet that need for our customers.”

All-in-one solution provider

Bailey continues to serve as both a distributor and a manufacturer of products such as hydraulic cylinders. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

Bailey International is unique in that it is not solely a manufacturer. “We source, we manufacture, we distribute, we bring our engineering expertise, we bring our stocking programs in place. I think that the complexities that we handle on [customers’] behalf offer a great solution set,” said Ken Baker.

By being “all of the above,” Bailey is able to expand its product portfolio without the need to own the design capabilities.

“When you own the design capabilities, you do have greater flexibility, so there are important aspects of that,” Baker acknowledged. “But if we work with great partners, they can fill gaps that we can’t manufacture.” This, in turn, enables the company to compete against larger industry players.

“Bailey’s history starting as a surplus distributor, then [growing] into a general distributor, then into a manufacturer has allowed us to expand into the company that we are today that offers both halves of that and allows us to be agnostic,” Baker added.

Because the margin profiles are similar, it doesn’t matter if a solution comes from the company’s manufactured products or from those of its suppliers.