Family businesses are one of the cornerstones of Lorain County. We highlight a few of them.
Elyria Manufacturing Corp.
Ask Brad Ohlemacher about the circumstances of Elyria Manufacturing Corp.’s founding, and he’ll tell you about how his grandfather, Burton Ohlemacher, was passed over for a promotion from field engineer to plant manager at the now-defunct Western Automatic Screw Products Co. So incensed was Burton by the slight that he didn’t just quit his job – he started a competitor with funding from his father, William Ohlemacher, who served as the new machining venture’s president.
“His motivation was pride and ego,” chuckles Brad, the company’s current president.
Eighty-four years later, the Elyria Manufacturing Corp. (marketed outside the area as EMC Precision Machining) is a $10 million-plus provider of custom-made, precision-machined components to manufacturers of everything from production-line equipment to truck braking systems. Brad, 46, and brother Jeff, the company’s 51-year-old chief executive officer, attribute the company’s success to a disciplined adherence to established business systems — they’re both big devotees of Verne Harnish’s “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” — and time-and task-flexible employees committed to exemplary customer service.
But more evident to the industry outsider is the brothers’ passion for the business. Their late father, Robert, who left his insurance sales job to help Burton run the company in the mid-1950s, made it clear they were free to choose their own career paths. But even as boys, they planned to work for the family. Jeff began sweeping floors at the 50,000-square-foot facility — then “a typical old, dirty factory” — the day after he turned 16 and got his worker’s permit. “I always had a dream that it would look like and perform like the overused term: a world-class company,” he remembers. Similarly, Brad began mowing the lawn at the age of 13.
“When you own a family business, there is a very thin line between where family ends and business begins,” Brad explains. “I never really seriously considered anything else. It’s what I have known from the time I’ve been able to speak.”
The brothers have also continued the family’s tradition of service to the community. Like his mother and paternal grandfather before him, Jeff has been on the Elyria Board of Education. And both men continued the family tradition with stints in the Rotary Club. Brad has also served on the boards of Leadership Lorain County and the Center for Leadership in Education at Lorain County Community College. He also helped start the Council for Education in Metalworking Technology, a group that encourages young people to explore manufacturing careers.
Although Brad acknowledges that the economic downturn has forced a downsizing of the workforce to 50, he stresses that the company is in sound financial shape. Elyria Manufacturing Corp., he projects, will be around if and when his 8-year-old and Jeff’s college-age boys decide to follow in their footsteps. However, Jeff says their participation isn’t necessarily guaranteed. One of the reasons the company still exists, he explains, is because positions and salaries are doled out based on ability and performance rather than family ties.
“I’ve told my kids all their lives that if they wanted to work for us, they would be a candidate, just like anybody else — however, they would have to be the best candidate,” he declares. “The way to ensure that the company succeeds is to have the best people operating it.”
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