Bradley Corp.
W142 N9101 Fountain Blvd., Menomonee Falls
Industry: plumbing fixtures, washroom accessories and emergency equipment
Employees: 750 total, 500 in southeastern Wisconsin
www.bradleycorp.com
Menomonee Falls-based Bradley Corp. is increasing its focus on innovation as it continues to expand.
Bradley Corp. is a fifth generation, family-owned business that employs 750 people, 500 of which are at its two southeastern Wisconsin facilities. The majority of these jobs are in manufacturing and operations, and all of the company’s manufacturing is done within the United States.
Since 2010, the company has expanded its Germantown manufacturing facility, acquired Delton, Mich.-based KelTech, Inc., and introduced a number of new product lines.
“We’ve really been focusing on innovation to keep our competition in the rearview mirror,” said Bryan Mullett, chief strategy officer.
Bradley Corp. got its start in the 1920s manufacturing hand-operated, circular wash fountains originally patented by Harry Bradley, founder of Allen-Bradley Corp. The company has been in the Mullett family since 1920, when Howard A. Mullett was a founding partner of the business.
Since then, the company has evolved to include plumbing fixtures, washroom accessories and emergency equipment, among several other manufactured products.
One product line introduced recently is the Evero, a lavatory system for a restroom that uses a unique manufacturing technique developed at Bradley, Mullett said.
“Right now, we’re the only manufacturer we know of in the world that’s pouring engineered stone into a mold,” he said.
Instead of requiring assembly, all of the materials in the engineered stone for the Evero line are poured into a mold.
A machine mixes up all of the material, including natural quartz, into something like a “cake mix,” Mullett said. It is then heated, a chemical reaction takes place, and the material is poured into a mold.
Another new product, introduced this year, is a line of Enclosed Safety Showers that the company has sold “a couple million dollars worth (of) already,” Mullett said.
The units, used in places like oil rigs where there can be certain safety concerns, incorporate KelTech’s “instantaneous and point of use water heaters” to meet new government safety requirements for these types of emergency fixtures.
The water heaters, Mullett said, provide the capability to heat huge volumes of water without the need for commercial heaters that may not ever be used, since the unit is for use in emergency situations.
Mullett said products like the ESS line, which is manufactured at the company’s headquarters in Menomonee Falls, are creating potential for new market space, both in the emergency fixtures market and by further integrating this new heating technology.
Bradley also manufacturers a number of different mounted eyewashes, patient care products, and drench showers and hoses, with the ESS being the newest addition to its line of emergency and safety fixtures.
Another of Bradley’s recent innovations is the Advocate, a sink unit that has a water faucet, soap dispenser and hand drier all in one.
“(The Advocate) really stretched the ideas and creativity in our marketplace,” Mullett said. “It’s a game-changer in the industry.”
The all-in-one unit is one of many washroom accessories Bradley makes that use automatic sensors and green technology, in which sinks are not using batteries but instead operate off of ambient light, Mullett said.
Another new product line for the company is the Diplomat line of institutional washroom accessories that have a “higher-end, architectural look and feel to it,” he said.
