Crane Buys into Municipal Water with Trillium’s US Pump Brands

Crane Company has agreed to acquire Trillium Pumps US, a manufacturer of pumps used by municipal water and wastewater utilities, for approximately $240 million. The seller is Trillium Flow Technologies, a portfolio company of First Reserve.

The sale is the third exit First Reserve has made from Trillium in seven months. It leaves the business the firm carved out of Britain’s Weir Group in 2019 with little beyond its Italian pump operations.

Trillium Pumps US (TPU) makes pumps for utilities that move water and the solids suspended in it. Its customers are municipal drinking water and wastewater utilities, irrigation districts and agricultural users, along with mining, chemical, food production and power generation plants. Alongside new equipment it also provides field services, installation, repair and retrofit work on pumps already in the ground.

The business sells under four brands with more than 220 years of combined operating history. Floway, dating to 1934, builds vertical turbine pumps, the long shafts that lift water out of deep wells and sumps and the workhorse of drinking water wells and booster stations across the western United States. Wemco, whose products date to 1952, makes recessed-impeller and screw pumps that move raw sewage, grit and sludge without clogging.

WSP builds self-priming trash pumps that sit above the liquid and draw it up on their own. Roto-Jet makes pitot tube pumps, which push small volumes to very high pressure in a single stage and are used in the oil and gas, fertilizer and mining sectors rather than in municipal applications.

Trillium consolidated its Salt Lake City operations into Fresno in 2021, bringing Wemco, WSP and Roto-Jet production onto the Floway site. That plant runs to more than 130,000 square feet on 17 acres and has built Floway vertical pumps for about 90 years. TPU, led by President Bryan Voytilla, is headquartered in Fresno, California.

“The progress TPU has achieved is a direct reflection of the talent and expertise of our team,” said Mr. Voytilla. “Together, we have advanced the business, improved performance and delivered consistently for our customers. We are proud of what we have built and look forward to the opportunities ahead alongside Crane.”

Crane Company estimates full-year revenue of the business at approximately $115 million and the price at roughly 14.6x estimated 2026 adjusted EBITDA. Those two figures imply EBITDA of about $16.4 million, an EBITDA margin near 14 percent and an enterprise value of about 2.1x revenue. The purchase of the Trillium brands is the first major acquisition by Crane since Alex Alcala became the company’s chief executive officer in April 2026.

“These brands are an excellent strategic fit that enhances the quality, durability, and growth profile of our Process Flow Technologies segment,” said Mr. Alcala. “It expands our position in highly engineered pump technologies, increases our exposure to resilient water and wastewater markets, and brings a large installed base that generates recurring aftermarket demand.”

First Reserve agreed to buy Weir’s flow control division in February 2019 for £275 million and completed the purchase that July, renaming it Trillium Flow Technologies with 15 pump and valve brands. It added Termomeccanica Pompe, a La Spezia, Italy-based maker of vertical turbine and split case pumps with more than 110 years of operating history, folding it into Trillium Pumps Italy in November 2024.

The break-up of Trillium began in 2026 and has moved quickly. In February, the company identified France Valves, Trillium Pumps US and Trillium Pumps Italy as the three operating businesses it was keeping. France Valves has since been sold and now Trillium Pumps US is under agreement. Trillium agreed in February to sell its valves division to Flowserve for $490 million, or about 12.3x 2025 adjusted EBITDA, on approximately $200 million of annualized revenue. That transaction closed in June. Also in June, Trillium sold its French valves operations to Framatome for an undisclosed price. The business, which has 330 employees and two production facilities in France, was renamed Sebim following the sale.

“TPU has built a robust business and market position through its deep customer relationships, a continued focus on operational excellence, and the commitment of its people,” said Doug Kitani, the chief executive officer of Trillium Flow Technologies. “We are proud of what the team has accomplished and believe Crane is well-positioned to support TPU in its next phase of growth.”

The market the brands serve is smaller and steadier than the infrastructure headlines around it. MarkNtel Advisors puts the US water and wastewater pump market at $1.7 billion in 2025, growing 4.1 percent a year to $2.2 billion by 2032. Grand View Research has water and wastewater as both the biggest end use of the global pump market, at 24.6 percent of 2025 revenue, and the fastest growing, at 5.8 percent.

The spending case sits underneath those figures. The Environmental Protection Agency’s 2022 Clean Watersheds Needs Survey put national wastewater and stormwater capital needs at $630 billion, of which $346 billion is wastewater, and found that slightly over 40 percent of reported wastewater needs are for installing or repairing pipes and pump stations. At that share, at least $138 billion of the wastewater total is work addressable by the equipment Crane is buying. In addition, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directed more than $50 billion to the EPA for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater work, including $15 billion for lead service line replacement.

Crane already owns a wastewater pump business in Crane Pumps & Systems, so the Trillium brands bolt onto an existing position inside its Process Flow Technologies division rather than opening a new one, and they arrive with an installed base that generates recurring repair and replacement work.

Crane Company became an independent public company in April 2023 when Crane Holdings split into two publicly traded businesses. The payments and merchandising operations became Crane NXT (NYSE: CXT), while Crane Company retained the Aerospace & Electronics, Process Flow Technologies and Engineered Materials businesses and the NYSE ticker CR. Crane sold Engineered Materials to KPS Capital Partners for $227 million in January 2025, leaving the company focused on aerospace and process flow technologies.

Crane reported $2.3 billion of revenue in 2025, including $1.26 billion from Process Flow Technologies. The segment, which generated $263 million of operating profit, makes valves, pumps, piping systems and other fluid-handling products used in chemical processing, power generation, cryogenics, water treatment and other industrial applications.

First Reserve invests in energy, utility and industrial businesses through its Infrastructure Solutions, Value-Added Infrastructure and Resources strategies. The middle-market firm has raised more than $35 billion since its founding and completed more than 750 transactions, up from approximately $31 billion and 650 transactions in 2019. Founded in 1983, First Reserve is based in Houston and Stamford, Connecticut. Jeff Quake, a managing partner, chairs the Trillium board.

“TPU’s performance and market position reflect the strength of the business and the work accomplished through our partnership with the Trillium management team,” said Mr. Quake. “We are proud of the progress achieved at TPU and believe this transaction positions the business well for continued success with Crane.”

J.P. Morgan Securities was the financial advisor to Trillium Flow Technologies and First Reserve.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.