Carbide Grinding Co., Inc. now dba Gorilla Mill was founded in 1974 in Waukesha by Philipp Laubenstein, an Austrian immigrant who came to America to begin a new life.
CGC has produced special and customized tooling for local well-known national companies. Kevin and Veronica Cranker purchased CGC in 2003. In addition to Kevin and Veronica, Gorilla Mill’s ownership team includes Nathan Cranker, Hilary and Steve Roberts, and Brian Kilford.
During the transition period, a local distributor approached us requesting help to defeat a nationally produced end milling cutter. CGC responded and the tool outperformed the national brand.
In the next year CGC started to see other Great Lake states inquire about the tool. It was then decided that CGC would go national. However, the tool still needed a name.
One night, while sitting in the office with a few colleagues, the staff began brainstorming names. “Zebra Mill?” No, that’s dumb. “Viper Mill?” Taken, “Camel? Fish? Dog?” Nope, all dumb. Kevin then blurts out, “Gorilla Mill!”
A long pause followed… “That’s it!” Everyone agreed. It had power and alliteration. From there, the company ran with it. Every time a new line of cutters was introduced, Gorilla Mill went wild with names: Sasquatch, Silverback, Knuckledragger, Baboon, Kong, Missing Link and so on.
Soon thereafter we coined the phrase that would become our mantra. “Weapons of Mass Production” was made a registered trademark in 2005 and is a staple on everything it produces.
Gorilla Mill team members are rebels. Marketing to NFL-watching, Harley-riding CNC operators who wear their caps backwards.
We have an attitude we call swagger, poking fun of the government and other offshore brands. Gorilla Mill went from obscurity, to 300 distributors worldwide, and quickly became “The Guys” for tough milling applications.
Our confidence shows in its marketing strategy but has the product to back it. Gorilla Mill wins over 85 percent of all testing. As business was rolling in 2015, we received an invite from Boeing Corporation to participate in The Industry Challenge II at the AMRC testing facility at the University of Sheffield, England.
Along with world’s largest end mill manufacturing companies, Gorilla Mill participated in testing with their Phenom in cutting 6AL4V titanium under very strict conditions. After two phases of testing, the Gorilla Mill Phenom had so badly throttled the other manufacturers that Boeing canceled Phase 3 of the high velocity test.
A little company out of Waukesha, Wisconsin had outperformed multi-billion dollar cutting tool companies that have been around 50-100 years. It was an eye opener.
Gorilla Mill started this endeavor with $1.25M in annual sales in 2003, the team was nominated for Wisconsin Manufacturer of the year in 2017 and has been named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s Future 50 list. This year, Gorilla Mill will surpass $20M in annual sales with a remodeled high tech 24,000-square- foot facility and a new 5-acre site for plant two in the same business park.
Gorilla Mill
W226 N735, Eastmound Dr
Waukesha, WI 53186
gorillamill.com
866.888.9600
