Crown Equipment Corporation has grown from a one-room operation in a small, rural American community (New Bremen, Ohio, USA) into an internationally diversified company considered today to be the sixth largest lift truck manufacturer in the world.

Two brothers, the late Carl H. Dicke and Allen A. Dicke founded the company in 1945. Carl's son and Chairman Emeritus, James F. Dicke, joined Crown later in the same year. Today his son, James F. Dicke II, is Chairman and CEO. The latter's son, James F. Dicke III, serves as the company President becoming the fourth generation of the Dicke family to hold this position.

Originally, Crown manufactured temperature controls for coal burning furnaces, servicing a handful of customers. The production of these units, which eventually became obsolete, took place in a former hardware store building located in New Bremen, Ohio, the community where Crown’s headquarters remain today.

By 1949, with the public’s growing interest in television, the company made its move into the production of antenna rotators, a product used to enhance television reception. The move proved successful with Crown becoming a leading manufacturer of the units until October 2001 when the company ceased production after a prolonged decline in worldwide demand for antenna rotators.