Address: 1600 Airport Road, Waukesha, WI 53188
Website: www.metalera.com
Year Founded: 1980
Product or Service offered: Engineered solutions for the commercial roofing industry. Metal-Era has two main divisions; the roof edge division and the Airflow division.
Projected 2013 Revenue: $27 million
President: Tony Mallinger
Target Clientele: architects, roof consultants, roofing contractors, roofing distributors and multi-facility owners.
Business organization memberships: MMAC, Waukesha County Business Alliance, National Minority Supplier Developmental Council WI, Certified Minority Business Enterprise, Single Ply Roofing Industry
What has fueled your company’s growth?: “Three years ago we established a set of ‘Wildly Important Goals’ that have really led to the direction that we have been on. They consist of zero waste, 100 percent customer satisfaction, and 15 percent increase in revenue. Zero Waste is all about working smarter not harder, to do this we began the journey onto lean and have put a tremendous focus on Continuous Improvements. The goal of 100 percent customer satisfaction is how well we are treating our customers, and a 15 percent year over year growth goal is aggressive, but it has forced us to find alternative ways to grow.”
What is the biggest obstacle to your company’s growth?: “Our biggest obstacle is the economy. We are in construction industry, and rely on people building buildings. When construction gets soft we have to strategically find alternative ways to keep growing.”
Who are the business people, locally or nationally, whom you admire? And what traits do those people exhibit that make you admire them?: “Southeastern Wisconsin is an area that is great for inspiration when it comes to growth oriented companies. We like this and tend to admire the companies that are aggressive and set the trends instead of following them.”
What is the outlook for the business conditions of your industry over the next several months?: “We are happy with where we sit for the half point of the year. The industry was very soft in the 4th quarter of 2012, and we expect this year to be much stronger which should offer a lot of opportunities for growth.”
What is your company’s most important growth strategy right now?: “Right now our most important growth strategy is our focus on multi-facility owners. We have put a lot of resources behind building owners with stores or facilities all over the country and it is paying dividends.”
