History of Price Pump® Company

In 1932, E. L. Price established the company in Emeryville, California. During the 1930s and 1940s, the focus was on the manufacture of agricultural pumps. The company relocated to Sonoma, California in 1948. Jack Price, the son of E.L Price, headed the firm during the 1950s. When Leon J. Paul acquired Price Pump in 1962, he retained the Price brand name because of its well-established reputation for quality and service.

In the early 1960s, Price Pump saw the need for small stainless steel pumps and responded with both 316 SS and Hastalloy models. In 1967, Jack Brown was hired as the company’s first general manager. Under his leadership, the company began to shift from agricultural to industrial and special-purpose pumps. By the late 1980s, the agriculture market, once Price Pump Company’s mainstay, had been all but replaced by the finished chemical, industrial laser, and semiconductor manufacturing markets. These markets require both non-metallic and stainless steel pumps for solvents, specialty chemicals and high temperature-high-pressure ultrapure water in the production of their printed circuit boards. About 80 percent of the liquid-cooled laser manufacturers in the United States use Price Pumps to move ultra-pure water to cool the lasers for medical and industrial use.

By 1979 Price Pump Company had outgrown its 3,600 square foot rented space on 4th St. East and moved to a 10,000 square foot facility on Sonoma’s Eighth Street East. Upon Jack Brown passing in 1984, Gene Webb was appointed General Manager. Five years later, in 1989, increased sales necessitated the construction of a 32,000 square foot facility two miles further down Eighth Street East – at 1 Pump Way (21775 Eighth Street East).

The company recognized that its new markets required fast delivery and exceptional service. In 1992, Bob Piazza was recruited to be President of the company. He brought 24 years of pump experience in marketing, operations, engineering, and sales and lead the changes to embrace the SQC / JIT manufacturing efforts which are still in place today. The standard delivery time for most pump companies was six to eight weeks. In order to have a competitive advantage, Price Pump’s lead times needed to change; standard product delivery times were cut to 10 business days for any product listed in its catalog. Today, Price Pump offers four different deliveries: standard seven to ten-day shipment, two to six working days, VIP (Very Important Pump) – same or next day shipment, and PONY Express parts – same day shipment. Quality, application support, and service are the value-added cornerstones of our success.

New technology and changing markets have continued to prompt the evolution of Price Pump Company’s products and manufacturing facilities. Maintaining its emphasis on providing pumps for the new technologies, Price Pump Company has applied standard pump design to innovative new pump applications and methods of manufacture. New applications include working in environmental cleanup, and filtering restaurant-cooking oil in deep-fat fryers, as well as, the introduction of several magnetically driven seal-less pump models since 1994.

In January 1999, the company acquired the air operated diaphragm (AOD®) pump line from ITT-Marlow. The AOD® product has superior features to its competition such as a simplified air valve and oil-less design. With the introduction of the AOD® line, Price Pump®  has doubled its distribution network and provided access to new geographical markets for centrifugal pump products.

September 2007 saw Price Pump partner with Mitsubishi Electric Automation and introduced a line of Variable Frequency Drives that complemented Price’s broad line of centrifugal pumps. With drives available to 50Hp accompanied by Price’s world-class technical support, users are now able to easily get the specialty assistance need to augment their applications with the performance features and energy-saving capabilities of these superior quality drives.

In 2012 Price Pump Company became an ISO 9001 certified manufacturer. Spring of 2019 added a new chapter to the history of Price Pump Company with the purchase and construction of a new facility in Caldwell, Idaho. Price Pump and many of its employees made the move in April with a near-seamless transition to their state of the art 46,000 square foot facility at 2203 Smeed Parkway. The new facility features an industry-leading test laboratory allowing for precision testing of every model of pump produced on site. In 2022 Price Pump Company purchased the assets of Granco Manufacturing.

In marketing its products worldwide, Price Pump emphasizes its competitive edge by providing a broad line of quality products, superior service and technical support, competitive prices and quick deliveries to meet the challenging needs of its customers.

Think Quality. Think Delivery. Think Price.