United Alloy Powers Up New Facility By Hillary Wundrow
Cover Story from Stateline Business September 2004: 14-15
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ANESVILLE While some area manufacturers have closed their doors, one Janesville company has expanded its operation.
United Alloy Inc. opened a new 84,000 square foot building at 4100 Kennedy Drive just a few doors down from their former location at 3920 Kennedy Drive.
The new facilities and strategic location helped the company in its efforts to keep gaining contracts. With a total of 13 loading docks, the new building is easily accessible from Interstate 90, just 30 miles south of Madison, Wis., and about 80 miles northwest from Chicago. Located near Highway 14, customers have easy access to the job shop.
Owner Tom Baer started United Alloy Inc. four years ago at its first Janesville location to produce customized fabricated metal parts.
"We started in 1999. We had a handful of people and we started building a customer base, buying precision equipment and it grew from there," said Al Vogel, president of the company.
With increasing orders, Baer opened the new facility in February. Setting up the new shop in only five months, United Alloy is off and running again.
Baer and Vogel along with Al Grabowski and Tom Ayers joined together at the new facility to run the company's expanded operations.
It currently employs 55 workers and keeps growing.
"We will be up to 100 people in a year," Vogel said.
United Alloy began with an emphasis in custom metal fabrication and powder coating.
Producing more than 100 types of truck parts, United Alloy has produced parts for Manser Trucking, U Haul, Penske Truck Rental and Budget Truck Rental companies.
During the last few months United Alloy Inc. has sold an increasing number of parts to John Deere as farmers profiting from higher dairy prices purchase more combines.
United Alloy also has contracts with Alliant Energy, Morgan Corporation in Janesville, and Boumatic in Madison.
Vogel partly attributes the company's ability to attract a broad customer base to its investment in new technologies.
The company, for example, recently purchased their second Trumpf Laser and all of its fabrication equipment including 3 Amada turret punches, 5 Cincinnati press brakes and our new panel folding machine are now electronically linked to the company's engineering CAD system.
United Alloy's two new powder coat painting systems are capable of coating parts up to 245 feet long and 12 feet wide. For smaller components, the new continuous powder line is designed to coat more than 300 parts per hour.
The company's electronically linked fabricator, Vertek laser quality control inspection and pulse arch welding machines help ensure precise welding.
In addition to creating fabricated metal parts, United Alloy has used its technology in the launch of the United Power Products (UPP) division.
UPP produces enclosures and diesel fuel tanks for generators. Now UPP brings in 60 percent of the companies revenue selling generator enclosures and tanks for use in hospitals, convenience stores, waste water treatment facilities, prisons and other institutions.
"Our new building is designed specifically to accommodate the manufacturer of power generation products," Vogel said.
A focus on efficient production lines has resulted in shortened lead times with production lines creating synchronous flow of fuel tanks, generator trailers and enclosures.
With its technology, UPP has been able to secure contracts with five major customers which produce generators such as Generac, Caterpillar, Kohler, Detroit Diesel and Cummins. Often large generator companies swamped with supplying the growing need for generators will outsource orders for the enclosures to UPP.
Because of the high number of loading docks at the new building, trucks from Cummins and Detroit Diesel pull in the back regularly to pick up enclosures and fuel tank lines.
As only one of four generator enclosure companies in Wisconsin, UPP has found a niche in a growing market.
Concern over potential terrorist attacks, coupled with the power grid going down on the East Coast a year ago, have forced companies and large institutions to consider purchasing generators.
"In 2006 we'll be selling more than 3,000 of these tanks a year," Vogel said.
Grocery stores, for example, simply cannot afford to go without power, he noted.
Prisons and large sports facilities also are purchasing more generators.
UPP has focused on targeting city's water treatment plants for contracts and is currently in negotiations with Cleveland and Detroit to produce enclosures for 2,000 watt generators.
UPP prides itself on building more tanks and trailers for generators than any other manufacturer. To remain competitive in enclosure production, the factory as a whole is in the second phase of attaining ISO certification, and UPP has become UL certified to produce generator enclosures ranging from 3-by 6 feet up to 12 by 40 feet tall.
Always expanding their capabilities, UPP is able to provide access handles featuring both key and padlock systems for customer security. In addition, to standard weather resistant models, the company also offers enclosures for noise sensitive applications requiring sound reductions. In addition, UPP can install accessories including exhaust systems, battery chargers and vibration isolators.
UPP also manufactures trailers with electric or hydraulic braking systems.
Using AutoCad Inventor as their standard enclosure and tank design package software, the five person engineering team can custom design an enclosure while giving the customer a preview of the product.
The engineering team often e mails their customers project drawing fields in AutoCad 14, AutoCad 2000 and AutoCad 2004.
While new technology and creating a niche in the marketplace has helped, the biggest reason for the company's success may lie in its strategic sales team.
The UPP sales team targets inside industry contacts and attends trade shows and generator conventions. Furthermore, each partner in the company has either owned or worked at a similar company for at least 10 years.
Grobowski has more than two decades experience in the application of fuel tasks, trailers and generators.
Grabowski worked with Onan Corporation and Cummins Power Generation as Product and Sales Manager for Accessories in addition to have generator system sales experience at Cummins North Central.
Vogel and Ayers have worked at the Newco Corporation, a major OEM supplier responsible for producing more than 10,000 tanks and over 5,000 trailers.
With their many years of experience the team keeps raising their goals. Vogel predicts UPP may start bringing in more than $10 million a year in sales and hopes United Alloy will bring in $18 million in 2005.
As the business keeps rolling in, the team is sure they won't be running short on orders.
"We wish we would have built larger," Vogel said.