New owner will seek to expand customer base for steel tube plant

By: Chalie Mathews, Herald Times Reporter

Name of business: Formrite Companies

Ownership: In April, David Wage purchased majority interest in the company. Wage also is president and owner of HMF Innovations and Heavy Metal Fabricators.

Origins of the business: Formrite was founded by Karl Wage (David's father), Don Surfus and Joseph Birkenstock. The trio had worked at The Manitowoc Company or Burger Boat. "The company came out of wartime shipbuilding efforts," Wage said.

Formrite entrepreneurs purchased their first fabrication plant in 1950 — a former schoolhouse.

Location: More than 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space has been built around the schoolhouse, 1816 Tenth St., Two Rivers.

Phone number: 793-1171

Website: www.formrite.com

Hours and days of operation: Wage said business has picked up and Formrite is back to having two manufacturing shifts.

Services provided-products sold: Formrite Companies is a leading provider of formed steel tubing for hydraulic and structural applications. It produces round, square and shaped tube, mechanical assemblies and hydraulic components.

Production capabilities are in the areas of assembly, bead, bend, braze, clean, coat, coil, cut, expand, flange, flare, flatten, notch, par flange, saddle, swage, test and weld.

Test capabilities include those linked to cleanliness, burst, pressure, flow, with assistance from a five-axis noncontact tube measurement system.

In contract manufacturing Formrite can fabricate customers' tubing needs, acquiring the necessary components, assembling the product to specifications and shipping the finished product in customer-branded containers.

How has business changed since opening: Wage said Formrite initially produced almost exclusively hydraulic fluid-carrying steel tube lines. It evolved into also creating structural steel tubing, e.g. chairs for the furniture industry, portable basketball support posts and rims for the backboards, and, currently, it also manufactures shopping cart
corrals.

Don Siebold, plant manager, has been with Formrite for 47 years. "We've come a long way, streamlining many of our production processes as we (strive for) more sales per employees," he said of various timesaving and reduced materials-handling measures.

Who are the customers and from where: Wage, who served Formrite as vice president for about a decade before leaving and acquiring HFM Innovations, said Formrite's biggest customer is Caterpillar, making the rigid hydraulic lines for its skid steers.

Formrite has national customers in construction, mining, agricultural, furniture and lawn care equipment.

Among its Manitowoc County clients is Miller St. Nazianz, manufacturing hydraulic lines for its crop sprayers.

A principal reason for Wage to acquire Formrite was the synergies he believes can work to the advantage of his three companies.

"Our shared customer base is always looking for suppliers that can provide an increasing range of products and services including complete parts and assemblies direct to an assembly line," said Wage, who has a bachelor's degree in physics.

"Together, Formrite, Heavy Metal Fabricators and HMF Innovations can provide customers with
complete machined fabrications from six pounds to 60 tons with steel tube assemblies and complex sub-assemblies, all manufactured using the latest automation technologies," Wage said.

"Caterpillar really likes the synergy between our automation group and tube fabrication," he said.

Keys to future success: "Our business is probably 80 percent in construction. We need to get more into furniture and sports equipment, expand more into consumer products," Wage said. "Ultimately, we'd like to develop a line of proprietary products."

Role of creativity: "Our creativity will be focused on process and product improvement. (Steel tube fabrication) is a very mature technology and hasn't changed that much," Wage said.

What is challenging: "Driving change is challenging … people like to do it the way they've always done it. It can be hard to change culture that is heavily rooted," Wage said.

"Don likes change and is always looking at things from a fresh perspective," Wage said of his plant manager.

What is enjoyable: "Some days are very stressful and I enjoy at the end of the day when we can say, 'Wow, we got this accomplished today,'" Siebold said.

He praised the plant's union employees for sacrificing during a very turbulent 2009 with sales
that fell precipitously.

Formrite has about 65 production employees, and Wage anticipates calling back about 50 workers as the economy rebounds and the company attracts new or increased business from current clients.

Like Siebold, Wage said he enjoys working with people. "I consider them friends. The only way I can come to work and enjoy it is by looking forward to being with these people," Wage said.

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