Bob and Charlie have launched forward, and in the process they have completely changed the company. Formerly, Stromberg Carlson was a manufacturing company that sold its products to OEM and aftermarket customers. Now Stromberg Carlson is a marketing and sales company with no manufacturing. Basically what Bob and Charlie did was to enter into partnerships and create new corporations which manufacture the products that Stromberg markets.

It was all a little confusing, so we asked Bob to give us an overview of the new structure. He explained, "Stromberg Carlson Products is owned by the Brammers, Bob and Charlie -- that hasn't changed.

"There's actually three separate companies -- four separate that the Brammer's have ownership in. We own a real estate company that holds the building - R&C Industries. We got formal on that one; Robert and Charles. It holds the buildings, and we lease the buildings from R&C. Then we own jointly with other partners a manufacturing company called Group Metal Products and a step company called Archer Corporation. All the companies are run separately and independently of each other.

"Two years ago we had a step product line that we sold to OEMs and weren't making money on so we made the decision to discontinue it. As far as that OEM business goes, we just weren't priced to cut it anymore. We didn't have the time to focus-in on one product line and give it all the attention it needed to drive the cost down, nor did we have the capital to retool.

"So we were going to sell the product line; however, our vendor, Accra-Plastics, a company we worked with for ejection molds and who was working on the quote for the molds we needed for the product, said - hey don't walk away from this product. We'll build the mold; we'll make it work.

"And then he said, I have a great idea; Let's start up another company, sell the product line into that company. So that's what we did. We started Archer Corporation as a joint venture with Accra-Plastics. They take care of the administrative and production end, we take care of the sales end. And that's basically how it started. So Archer Corp. is owned by Bob and Charlie, but it's also owned and managed by Fred Sorensen, Mike McMullen and Jack Vanderzowen of Accra-Plastics.

"Then there's Group Metal Products, Inc., which was formed because we were sub-contracting out a lot of our work and our former plant manager, Claire Ray, saw that. Claire and his son Mark own a very successful company called CRM, a finishing company. They do powder coating, wet coating, de-burring, and simple assemblies. A couple of years ago we started sub-contracting some of our work. That way we didn't have to design our tools and products around our own capability. For example, say we own a 150 ton press and we have to make all our dies work on that - even though it would be more efficient to produce work on a 250 ton press, which we didn't have. We decided not to do that anymore. So we design all of our products with the best tooling in mind, and then we would go find sources to run the tools for us. Claire and Mark came to us and said, 'If you are going to keep subbing out work, why don't we think about opening a new company and putting that work into that company. You will have ownership in it so you'll benefit; you'll direct your work there. As our overhead falls, your costs will go down. We have capabilities in bringing in other kinds of work that will take care of the seasonality portion of manufacturing and we'll handle all the headaches.'

So Group Metal Products was formed. That company is owned by Claire and Mark Ray, and Bob and Charlie. We have no administrative requirements or responsibilities."

Bob explained that what these new relationships provide is the freedom to concentrate on developing new products and customer service. He said, "We don't have to worry about OSHA walking through the door anymore; that's not our headache. We don't have to worry about air-use permits or the Department of Natural Resources -- not our headache. Those kinds of administrative matters used to take up about 45 percent of our time."

Charlie added, "It's still Stromberg Carlson's equipment; Group Metals rents our equipment. And Stromberg Carlson still buys every piece of raw material that's processed for Stromberg." Continued