His phone eventually did ring, and what the caller had to say was about the last thing he expected to hear. “After I got the phone call, I went on
J
the internet to check it out because I thought it was a prank,” Dolack said. “I couldn’t believe someone was thinking about doing it.”
By “someone,” Dolack meant com-
mercial and retail audio-visual mount maker Peerless Industries, Aurora, Ill. The company wanted to launch an in- house diecasting department capable of producing 100% of the castings the company uses in the production of its mounting equipment. What gave the suggestion the sound
of a prank? Peerless was going to substitute self-produced castings for parts it had been purchasing from a low-cost country. Peerless began buying die castings
from China in 2006. At the time, the company found it could buy the parts at a lower rate than it could from its domestic suppliers. But communica-
oe Dolack was a man like many others in 2008: he’d lost his job with a diecasting fi rm and was waiting for the phone to ring with the prospect of a new position.
tion problems and delivery diffi culties soon negated many of the benefi ts provided by the slightly lower piece price. The company decided it want- ed more control over its own destiny. “We felt we could still do it in this
country and do it economically on a global scale,” said Brian Eble, Peerless’ vice president of global brand devel- opment. “A lot of people think you can’t do it inexpensively if you don’t go to China, but we have gotten the right people and proven you can do it. We are as price competitive as we were in China.”
Quality and Its Perception When you walk into your local
Wal-Mart, you’ll fi nd a rash of Peerless mounts. But not a single one of them will be on the retail shelves. Most of the products you will fi nd for sale will be sourced from low cost countries, according to Eble. To fi nd the Peerless products, you’ll
have to look to the televisions hanging throughout the store. “Wal-Mart sells Chinese product, but
the [display models are on] Peerless mounts,” said Peerless Executive Vice President John Potts. “We don’t want
to say they’re selling bad product, but it’s a different price game.” According to Potts, Peerless mounts
are exactly where the company wants them to be in Wal-Mart (and perhaps in the only place they can be to be produced economically in the U.S.). The consumer seeking a retail mount is looking for a different product than the professional hired to install the items in hospitals, stadiums, schools, etc. “If a 42-in. television falls in the [Chi-
cago Bulls home court] United Center, you have a problem,” Potts said. Peerless does make some mounts for
the retail market, but it is one of the smallest of the 28 unique segments the company serves with its 3,600 different products. Peerless instead focuses on serving the professional, who generally seeks increased value-added services, such as short lead times, technical sup- port, consulting and custom-solutions development. “We sold [and installed] 1.38
million mounts in 2009 in North America alone,” Eble said. “When the economy is better, we average around 1.7 million.” Peerless rolled out approximately 40 new products in 2010, including
When Peerless moved into a new building in May of last year, it carved out about 5% of its square footage to build an in-house diecasting facility capable of producing all of the aluminum parts it uses in its assemblies.
MODERN CASTING / February 2011 25
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