Somehow he got sidetracked into running other people’s businesses, including Hager Companies, a manufacturer of hinges and other hardware. But, in 2005 at the age of 45, he left a six-figure salary to start TAB Industries.
The company distributes steel doors, subcontracts manufacturing, does trucking and fabrication, and some assembly. Then, four years ago, Brizek came up with a new product, the TAB Wrapper Tornado (patent pending); now the company can barely keep up with demand for this innovation in securing products to pallets.
Despite some setbacks along the way, TAB Industries is thriving. The company moved into a 44,000-square-foot facility in northeast Reading, near Albright College, and has an annual revenue of $4 to $5 million per year.
What inspired you to start TAB Industries?
When I was 45, I decided that if I didn’t start my own business now, I’d never do it. So, I rented a 2,000-square-foot garage in Honey Brook (near the PA Turnpike south of Reading). We started out as a steel door distributor for a company (DKS Steel Door and Frame Systems) headquartered in California. They wanted to open up the East Coast market. My background was in hardware and they wanted someone familiar with the industry who was not a competitor.
At that time, we were selling one to 20 doors a week, so I needed to supplement my income. Over the years I had developed relationships with companies that did laser-cutting, welding, powder-coating and machining. I approached a number of them and [became a manufacturing broker for them]. This became 90 percent of our income.
After some difficulties, the door business continued to grow and became our foundation, and we became a warehousing and logistics company. We needed the doors delivered, so instead of paying someone to deliver them, we purchased our own trucks and started to make the deliveries ourselves.
Then we started our own fab shop, because a lot of the doors we sold needed to be altered. We became certified through Underwriters Laboratories and Warnock Hersey for the door and hardware industries.
We also do assembly work for people like Bosch Security Systems and Giant Food Stores.
We needed a better method to secure the doors to the pallets. One day, on the way to work, I saw a machine out in the field baling hay. It would take round bales and put plastic around them, with an orbital-type technology. I thought we needed something like that for our door skids, so I started investigating and found that such a machine existed for stretch-wrapping products, but the price was $25,000 to $50,000 per machine. I looked at the concept and developed our own machine. It made our lives so much easier. My damage claims started to go away, my workman’s comp claims went way down. It takes the place of banding, which can be time-consuming and dangerous.
Our customers started saying they could use one of those machines. My son Andrew [G. Brizek, now the company’s general manager] had graduated from Penn State University with a business degree…so we brought him into the business and put him in charge of the TAB Wrapper Tornado, which we make and market. [You can see how this machine works by visiting the website and watching the video.]
What was the biggest challenge in getting your business off the ground?
Near the beginning, I had one huge customer for whom we were doing about $1.5 million worth of laser-cutting work. We needed to relocate, so we moved to an 8,000-square-foot facility in Goodville. The customer said they had just picked up additional business from two other companies, and asked what we were willing to do to support them. So we took a five-year lease on a 30,000-square-foot facility back in Honey Brook. We also bought equipment to do the work in-house. Within six months, the customer moved all that work to Mexico. It was devastating. This was in 2008/2009, when the economy crashed.
We decided after that to redefine ourselves. I never wanted to put myself in the position again where I had just one major customer. So we diversified, but kept a synergy amongst our diversification.
How has the business grown?
We have gone from 2,000 to 44,000 square feet in nine years. We now have 13 employees, including my wife Beth, who handles the accounting and bookkeeping, and my daughter Paige, who works part-time; and my father-in-law, who is retired but is our full-time director of operations.
The company now does about $4 million to $5 million a year in revenue; of that, 30 percent is the door/warehouse business; 30 percent is the TAB Wrappers; 20 percent is the manufacturing subcontracting; 10 percent is trucking and fabrication; and 10 percent is assembly.
The first year we started selling the TAB Wrappers, we sold four; the second year we sold 52; the third year we sold 200.
Have you taken advantage of any resources in growing the business?
Since we moved to Reading in August 2012, the Greater Reading Economic Partnership has helped a great deal. Also, the Northeastern Pennsylvania Ben Franklin Technology Partners have been very helpful in aiding us with different procedures, and with exposure to the community.
Ben Franklin provided funding for a warehousing study, making that aspect of the business more efficient.
What’s the big differentiator for TAB Industries?
We provide great service, and our people are second to none. Everybody treats their job as if they owned the business.
The TAB Wrappers cost $10,000 less than our [competition’s machines]. We’re offering a two-week, $1,000 rental that can be used toward purchasing the machine if the customer wants to keep it. Since we started doing this four years ago, only one company returned the machine — and that was because they wanted a bigger one.
By Susan L. Peña
http://tabindustries.com/
Stone Pointe Business Center 2525 N. 12th Street Reading, PA 19605
