Waukesha-based Walter USA, a manufacturer and designer of tools for cutting, boring and turning, will move its corporate offices and manufacturing plant to a 55,000-square-foot facility in Pewaukee’s Ridgeway Industrial Park in July. Walter USA is the U.S. division of Walter AG, a German manufacturer with more than 20 facilities around the globe.
The company, currently located at 1111 Sentry Drive, Waukesha, has outgrown its 25,000-square-foot facility. The company, formerly known as Waukesha Cutting Tools, has been located at the Sentry Drive facility since 1966.
Walter AG acquired Waukesha Cutting Tools in 2000, largely to increase its profile in the U.S. market.
Walter USA’s new home at N22 W23855 Ridgeview Parkway West was formerly used as the GE Technology Center. The building is now being retrofitted to accommodate Walter USA.
The company needed to move because its sales have grown in 41 consecutive months, and the local firm’s revenues have increased more than 20 percent in the past three years, according to Muff Tanriverdi, Walter USA president and chief executive officer.
Walter USA currently employs 69 people.
Walter USA has already hired three new employees, and another will start in July when the company moves, Tanriverdi said. At least four more workers will be added after the move.
When Walter USA moves this summer, it will fold in the U.S. sales and customer service operations of two Walter AG acquisitions, Titex and ProtoTyp. The U.S. manufacturing operations of those companies have already been merged and are located in Crystal Lake, Ill. The Crystal Lake facility will remain open after Walter USA’s move in July.
The company’s current facility in Waukesha was sold in the fall of 2005 to Carroll College, which houses its maintenance and grounds keeping departments there.
The new facility, located a short distance from Interstate 94, will be helpful because it will be easier to find for the company’s out-of-town visitors. The Milwaukee Marriott West hotel is located nearby.
"It will be a very easy location for people to get to, and there’s a hotel right there for people to stay in," said Allen Rothman, Walter USA’s manager of quality assurance, environmental health and safety.
More than 20,000 square feet in the new facility will be dedicated to a technology and training center, where workers will design the next generation of Walter products and help train co-workers, customers and distributors of the equipment.
"Having the ability to add technology and training to our company is what they wanted," he said. "All of the things we’re putting into it will make us better and will allow us to respond to the needs of the customer better."
Walter USA is an active member of the American Society for Quality, headquartered in Milwaukee.
"The idea is for us and ASQ to mentor the rest of the community," Rothman said. "Any company is only as good as its supply base. Those of us in ASQ offer assistance to other companies, and this will allow us to bring in other companies and show them the quality systems we have in place, show them what can be done if they do it properly."
April 28, 2006, Small Business Times, Milwaukee, WI
