What Plews & Edelmann makes

Plews & Edelmann, legally Plews, Inc., is a power-steering aftermarket manufacturer and marketer headquartered in Dixon, Illinois. The company describes its product line as the Total Solution for power steering: all-new manufactured rack and pinion assemblies, pumps and gear boxes, high-performance Edelmann Elite hoses, power steering coolers built to OE specifications, a patented universal power steering filter, synthetic power steering fluids, seal and rebuild kits, electric power steering drive-belt replacement kits, couplings and tools, and turbocharger oil lines.

Two things separate the current company from a typical reman supplier. Every Edelmann Elite hard part carries a Designated Numeric Asset (DNA) serial number etched into the unit during final assembly, and each unit is 100% individually tested, shipping with a printed Performance Test Report matched to its serial. The company backs Edelmann Elite hard parts with a 100 year / 1,000,000 mile warranty, and it markets on the strength of a domestic supply base: it states that over 91% of its supply chain is in North America and that it held a fill rate above 95% over the prior two years. Products sell under the Edelmann and Edelmann Elite brands.

Ownership and history

Plews & Edelmann traces its roots to 1909, when Erich Edelmann founded a Chicago wholesale business selling air valves and steam gauges (the firm was formerly known as E. Edelmann and Company). It marked its 115th anniversary in 2024. The company was owned by British industrial conglomerate Tomkins plc before private equity firm Eigen Capital acquired it in April 2011. In August 2016, Penfund made a junior-capital investment in the company.

The most consequential recent change was a split of the business. In September 2020, Plews sold its Retail segment, including the well-known Amflo, LubriMatic, and Tru-Flate brands, to Highline Aftermarket, a subsidiary of The Sterling Group. The remaining company narrowed its focus to the power-steering aftermarket and launched what became the Total Solution program in 2021. In 2022 it acquired Blissfield Manufacturing, a third-generation Tier 1 refrigeration and condenser maker in Blissfield, Michigan, picking up OE-quality power steering cooler technology, designs, and equipment and moving cooler production into its Dixon facility. Day-to-day leadership per company materials and trade coverage: Dan Billie, appointed Chief Executive Officer in December 2020 after serving as the company's PE Advisor and Chief Commercial Officer, and Tony Edwards, Vice President of Business Development.

Certifications and quality

Plews & Edelmann states that it holds ISO 9001:2015 for quality management and ISO 14001 for environmental management, the latter maintained since 2004. Its corporate-responsibility page reports that it maintained ISO 9001:2015 again in 2020, and its 115-year announcement describes maintaining that certification with near-perfect audit performances. A certificate is posted on the company's own site. The company also runs a supplier rating program that grades supplier performance on quality, safety, and environmental compliance, and it says it switched its screw-machine lubricants to biobased oils to reduce friction and environmental impact.

Known customers

Plews & Edelmann sells into the automotive aftermarket rather than direct-to-OEM production programs, so its customer base is a distribution channel, not a named OEM roster.

No individual buyer meets the documented-program bar for the current power-steering business, so none is named here. The honest framing is sector-level: Plews & Edelmann is a channel supplier to the North American parts aftermarket.

Sourcing evidence

Plews & Edelmann's US import record runs to 2,246 sea shipments between February 2015 and April 2026, per US customs bills of lading. That total needs a caveat that matters for reading it: the high-volume historical records, grease guns, tire valves, air hoses, and lubrication pumps, belong to the retail and lubrication line the company divested to Highline Aftermarket in 2020. The recent record tells the current story. Shipments in 2024 through 2026 are power-steering parts: a Power Steering Gear (the April 2026 shipment, from China), rack and pinion assemblies, power steering pumps, and turbocharger oil lines and hose kits.

Seven shown of a longer supplier list. By origin, the record is concentrated in China, followed by Taiwan and India. This concentration abroad is worth reading against the company's own marketing claim that over 91% of its supply chain sits in North America: the two are not contradictory, because the ocean-import record captures the imported share of components while finished assembly and much sourcing happen domestically, but a buyer weighing nearshoring options and tariff exposure should treat the North American claim as a company statement rather than a verified figure.

Coverage caveats: these are US ocean-freight records only. Air, truck, and rail movements do not appear; some records name freight intermediaries rather than manufacturers; and product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence, and ImportYeti's cumulative spend figure is an order-of-magnitude estimate covering roughly three-quarters of shipments.

Frequently asked questions

What does Plews & Edelmann make?

Plews & Edelmann manufactures and markets power-steering components for the automotive aftermarket: rack and pinion assemblies, pumps, gear boxes, high-performance Edelmann Elite hoses, coolers, a universal power steering filter, synthetic fluids, seal and rebuild kits, electric power steering drive-belt kits, and turbocharger oil lines. Every Edelmann Elite hard part is serialized with a DNA number and 100% tested.

Who owns Plews & Edelmann?

Plews & Edelmann (legally Plews, Inc.) is a private, private-equity-owned company. It was acquired by Eigen Capital from Tomkins plc in April 2011, with a junior-capital investment from Penfund in 2016. It was founded in 1909 as E. Edelmann and Company.

Where is Plews & Edelmann headquartered?

Plews & Edelmann is headquartered at 1550 Franklin Grove Road, Dixon, Illinois 61021, where it operates a 320,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility.

What happened to the Amflo, LubriMatic, and Tru-Flate brands?

Plews sold its Retail segment, including the Amflo, LubriMatic, and Tru-Flate brands, to Highline Aftermarket in September 2020. Those brands are no longer part of Plews & Edelmann, which now focuses on the power-steering aftermarket under the Edelmann and Edelmann Elite brands.

What certifications does Plews & Edelmann hold?

Plews & Edelmann states that it holds ISO 9001:2015 for quality management and ISO 14001 for environmental management, the latter since 2004. The company says it has maintained ISO 9001:2015 with near-perfect audit performances and posts a certificate on its site.

How many employees does Plews & Edelmann have?

Employee-count sources place Plews & Edelmann at roughly 90 to 95 people. The company does not publish audited headcount or revenue figures; estimates that circulate in data brokers are modeled rather than reported.

Last verified September 28, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.