Ed Graefe remembers when an industry-leading publication wrote about its fabricator of the year three years ago, referencing the featured company’s 95 percent on-time delivery rate. While that rate is indeed extraordinary, Graefe sent a note around to his staff at S&W Metal Products, Inc., noting that percentage wouldn’t cut it at their Gilbertsville, Berks County headquarters.
Graefe’s competitive vision has driven S&W Metals to tremendous growth since he purchased the company 10 years ago, and it recently made the Inc. 5000 list, the magazine’s ranking of 5,000 high-performing revenue growth from 2005-2008. Graefe has grown revenues from a little under $1 million in 1999 to nearly $10 million today, and grown employees from eight to 35 in the last decade.
“What I saw then and what I see now is good people,” says Graefe, who notes that six of his original employees are still with the company.
That on-time delivery performance is actually a major differentiator for S&W, which claims a rate of 99 percent. The production and fabrication shop specializes in powder coating, machining, engineering and prototyping for transportation, furniture, construction and material handling industries. S&W also recently attained its ISO 9001 certification from the International Organization for Standardization, which means the company has business processes in place to achieve the highest industry standards for quality management.
S&W has recently expanded its laser cutting capability, added robotic capability and installed a robust financial management program that pinpoints part-level profit and loss. Graefe says the company is looking to move its powder-coating operation, which is currently outsourced, in-house to maintain the company’s on-time edge. That would result in about 10 additional workers at S&W.
“Sooner or later our competitors will wake up,” says Graefe. “We’re pushing the envelope.”
Source: Ed Graefe, S&W Metal Products, Inc.
Writer: Joe Petrucci
