Serving a variety of markets
Forming a custom oblong
administrative back end. Wynn notes that it has been more diffi cult in recent decades to fi nd mechanically-inclined employees, since many younger adults don’t earn technical or vocational degrees and fewer have grown up working with farm equipment or fi xing cars as a hobby. Peerless often fi nds itself drawing employees from nearby, larger cities, and off ering some of the best wages in town as an incentive.
and/or infl exible. To eliminate any chance of this happening, and strike a balance between growth and customer service, Peerless emphasizes customer service and contact with its customers of all sizes. According to Troy Baumgartner, Marketing Manager, “T e key is our strong relationships that we have with all the customers that we deal with.” Another aspect of customer service is
that Peerless welcomes customer feedback to
“We tell people that we’re still manufacturing a product that goes back to biblical times, and continuing to grow with it. It has its particular niche and it has its particular uses that are not going away.” – Tom Wynn, President
Another challenge, Wynn notes, has been striking a fi nancial balance between growth and spending. “You have to fi nd the balance where you’re not getting a tremendous amount of overhead creep, but you’re also investing in the human capital you need to keep going forward.” Given that Peerless has grown from 220 employees in 2005 to 425 today, this balancing act has not been easy and will continue to play a larger role the more the company grows. T e last and most ideological challenge
that Peerless currently faces is remaining true to its roots. When a company grows by an order of magnitude in under a decade, it’s easy for it to ‘lose touch’ and become impersonal,
26 MARCH-APRIL 2012
make improvements in their products and their organization, and has chosen to remain fl exible in manufacturing. “Even though we’ve gotten bigger, we’re still an extremely fl exible company,” Wynn says. “We try to work with our customers: we don’t want to give them just plain vanilla. We’ll do short runs; we’ll do specials.” On the employee and community side, the company strives to be a proactive, positive force in the areas where it operates. Peerless has received awards from the Winona Chamber of Commerce for being a community leader, and encourages community leadership among its employees as well. Some Peerless staff can be found
WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
delivering for Meals on Wheels during the workday, since the company allows employees to take time off for volunteering. As Wynn puts it, “We strive to have this be the place where people want to come to work.” T e company’s overall plan is large-scale:
Peerless plans to continue making strategic acquisitions that fi t with their business plan, increase their market share lead, and grow organically to become the global leader in
Proof Testing Chain at the Winona plant, calibrated and controlled equipment ensuring Proof Load conformance and span consistency.
chain manufacturing. But their fi rst priority is, as Wynn puts it, “never losing sight of where we came from.” Perhaps what is really special about Peerless right now is that the company strives to apply its small-business attitude and ethics on a large-business scale. T is attitude is well summed up in Tom Wynn’s advice to anyone starting out in this business: “Never, ever compromise your integrity. Make sure you are who you are. Treat people with respect and dignity, listen to what they have to say, and most importantly, surround yourself with good people with good character, and trust that they’re going to do the right thing.” ❙
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