merge histories, manufacturing expertise
Two Wisconsin companies
form unique partnership
in store fixtures, millwork.
Two strong Wisconsin companies recently joined to form a hybrid manufacturing firm through a seamless transition.
TJ Hale Company, a retail interior environments manufacturer, joined forces
with another Milwaukee area company,
A.J. Pietsch Co., to form an alliance of
two companies with more than 150
years experience in the secondary wood
processing industry.
When Hale purchased Pietsch in
September 2011, it created a company
with 130 employees, upwards of 300,000
sq. ft. of manufacturing, office, and
warehouse space, as well as a national
presence in retail interiors (Hale) and
specialty architectural millwork (Pietsch).
Demanding installations like this one at Perimeter Sporting Goods in the
Milwaukee area required the newly merged Hale staff to reverse calculate all
production and delivery dates from the ship date to meet customer requirements.
Combining cultures
So what were the major challenges
re combining the two companies? Was
there a “culture” difference between
the two companies? “The cultures were
rather similar,” says Hale CEO Robert
Rosean. “Differences existed due to
size and markets served, but were also
seen as complementary and perhaps
synergistic in terms of serving existing
customers of both organizations.”
Still, there were some adjustments,
particularly on the production side. “The
processes at TJ Hale are more devel-
oped, and the scope of the organization
allows for more specialization in roles,”
Rosean says. “The ERP system in place
at Hale formalizes and documents many
of the functions done ad hoc in a smaller
organization. There is obviously a learn-
ing curve for the veterans of the smaller
shop (Pietsch), but also more resources
and depth of experience are available to
serve our clients here.”
Increased payroll
The combined organizations have
grown payrolls over 35 percent and
revenues over 50 percent in the last
12 months, according to Rosean. The
combined company is located in Hale’s
facility in Menomonee Falls, north of
Milwaukee. “Future growth for the
combined company is the key goal,” says
Rosean.
“We’re very excited to see this combi-
nation to its full potential over the next
three to five years” Rosean adds. “We
have great confidence in the Wisconsin
talent brought to bear and in the poten-
tial of increased manufacturing expertise
this brings to our clients. An essential
key to our past success and that of our
future is the skill of our companies – as
we bring new generations into our busi-
ness, we are excited to see the experi-
ence of all these years bestowed unto
these next generations.”
The combined organization contin-
ues to serve local architectural millwork
needs as well, and site-specific perim-
eter retail opportunities that were not a
major focus of either organization before
the combination.
Personnel roles examined
Materials manager Dave Nodolski
explained how the merge of employees
was accomplished, relative to job description, duties, and other factors.
