Rea Magnet Wire Company

1933 – today

Founded: 1933, Fort Wayne. Rea's own history timeline, the News-Sentinel, the Copper Development Association and the company's reference summary all agree: Victor Rea formed Rea Magnet Wire in 1933. No incorporation record was retrieved, so the year rests on the accounts cited. Rea's own wording carries its founding distinction: it "becomes the first independent producer of enameled wire in the country" (official timeline) — as the company's claim, corroborated in substance by the CDA's 2025 welcome ("Formed in 1933 as the first independent producer of enameled wire in the U.S.").

Founder: Victor Rea — With Dudlo almost from the start; named Dudlo Works Manager in 1929 (Rea timeline — the News-Sentinel / Jacobs chains call him Dudlo president from 1928; role-title conflict flagged, not resolved: Works Manager 1929 on the company's own timeline vs. president 1928 in the secondary chains). He resigned from General Cable in 1933, shortly before Dudlo's Fort Wayne production was moved to Rome, New York, and formed Rea with several former Dudlo employees (company summary) — the Jacobs chain specifies three co-workers; the number is carried as secondary detail, not stated more strongly. He leased the Woodward Engineering Building in Fort Wayne for the first plant (official timeline).

What it did: Magnet wire — copper, aluminium and brass insulated magnet wire and bare / specialty wire for motors, transformers and coils — produced for the Rea Magnet Wire Corporation from the leased Woodward building. First order: Jefferson Electric started the company rolling (company summary chain) — a single secondary chain; the official timeline does not name it, and it is not stated more strongly.

Course: A 1935 production milestone — 10,000 pounds of Single-B Silk enameled wire on three-inch spools (official timeline). Continuous operation through World War II in support of the war effort (timeline, 1941 entry). Victor Rea died of a heart attack in 1954; his son Samuel Rea became president the same year (timeline: Samuel elected president 1954; company summary agrees). First plant outside Fort Wayne: Lafayette, Indiana, 1959 (100,000 sq ft); second Fort Wayne facility at Adams Center Road, 1962 (closed in the 1993 streamlining). Sales reached a record $100 million in 1984 (timeline). Later Fort Wayne headquarters address in hand: 3600 E. Pontiac Street (2015 Fort Wayne Business Weekly industry account).

Fate: Still operating, headquartered in Fort Wayne. Ownership chain, kept distinct from survival: purchased by Alcoa on 18 January 1960 (timeline and company summary agree on the year; the summary gives the exact day — carried as documented), ending the Rea family's tenure; bought back from Alcoa in 1985 by president Jim Vann with Bill Gorman, Ron Foster and Bill Wyatt (timeline) and held privately thereafter; purchased Phelps Dodge Magnet Wire North America on 14 February 2006 (timeline: assets, plants in Fort Wayne and Monterrey, Mexico; summary: the purchase added about 600 employees to a North American payroll of 675) — thereby absorbing the Inca lineage of entry 24; acquired by Elektrisola (privately held, Germany) in 2023 (timeline). Rea states it currently employs over 900 people worldwide (timeline, "Today" entry, read 2026-11-04); a 118-day-old reference summary gives 800 employees — both are carried as their sources date them, not averaged.

Sources:

1. Rea Magnet Wire, official history timeline (1933 formation, Woodward building lease, first independent producer; 1935 milestone; Lafayette 1959; Adams Center Road 1962; Alcoa 1960; $100M sales 1984; buyback 1985; Phelps Dodge purchase 2006; Elektrisola 2023; over 900 employees today) — https://www.reawire.com/about/rea/
2. Rea Magnet Wire company summary (1933; three co-workers; Jefferson Electric first order; Victor Rea d.1954, Samuel president; Alcoa 18 Jan 1960; Phelps Dodge purchase 14 Feb 2006, +~600 employees) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rea_Magnet_Wire
3. Copper Development Association, Rea welcome, 2025 (formed 1933 as the first independent producer of enameled wire in the U.S.) — https://copper.org/copper-development-association-welcomes-rea-magnet-wire-company-inc-as-new-member/
4. Frazier, News-Sentinel (Rea formed 1933 by Victor Rea, former Dudlo superintendent, after quitting General Cable; still operating on East Pontiac Street at that writing) — http://egen.fortwayne.com/ns/projects/history/2000/1910/ind6.php
5. Fort Wayne Business Weekly, magnet-wire industry account, 10 July 2015, via Rea (headquarters at 3600 E. Pontiac St.; Rea as the world's largest magnet-wire producer at that writing) — https://www.reawire.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/FWBusiness_MagnetWire.pdf