Plating is Golden

Sales shine as chief named Entrepreneur of Year

Columbia City- C&R Barrel Plating had two customers when Daryl Lambert bought the corrosion- protection business in 1968. Lambert quickly made changes. In order for pieces to be coated individually as well as in groups tumbling in barrels, Lambert added rack plating to the business, although he didn’t drop “Barrel from the company’s name years. “I had four-man operation there at the end of the first week,” Lambert said.

Lambert expanded the mental plating business four times over the years, including moving from original site, which formerly housed a dry cleaner. The company now has 202 customers, two nearly identical plants across the street form its first digs and 120 employees working weekends to keep up. “We need about 130, but we can’t get them,” Lambert said, citing Whitley Country’s low unemployment rate, which was 2.4 percent in June and 2.8 percent in July.

“We turning down business all the time,” he added.

Last month, Lambert was named “Entrepreneur of Year” by management consultant George S. May International Co., which chose his from more than 10,000 companies it counseled in 1996. George S. May International Co. was called in to prepare C&R Plating for QS 9000 certification and improve management as 65-year-old Lambert slows down Lambert remains chief executive of the company, but Dennis Blaugh was named president a year ago. Blaugh started at C&R as a high school senior a few months after Lambert purchased the business. C&R Plating, owned by Lambert and his wife, Eloise, also was named the top Hoosier pollution-prevention company by the Indiana Industrial Operator Association earlier this year.

“C&R Plating is model for growing businesses all over the country,” said Donald J. Fletcher, president of George S. May International of Park Ridge, Ill. “Daryl Lambert understands the importance of succession planning and the need for quality,” Fletcher added. C&R’s biggest expansion was in 1987, when the business moved to a former warehouse and grew from 14 to 82 employees. A second plant opened in 1995, and while its operations are nearly identical, the two have separate utilities and fire walls so one could continue production if something happened in the other.

“I don’t want to take the chance to be shut clean down,” Lambert said. Other strides have been taken to keep the business viable. United Technologies was C&R Plating main customer when Lambert took over, but the company started plating its brakes internally and pulled most of its work from C&R. That made Lambert vow to never rely solely on customer-or the automotive industry again.

Now 30 percent of business is from the automotive industry, and C&R also does work for off-road vehicles, aircraft and electronics, said Lambert. C&R even plates $3,000 jet engine pieces, and only one has been rejected as scrap since 1981, he said. Keeping C&R Plating in line environmentally is another top priority for Lambert. The business recycles about 75,000 gallons of water daily; reverse osmosis allows for reuse of 90 percent of he water used for rinsing in the plating process.

“We have worked feverishly on getting our waste treatment in line,” Lambert said. Lambert now is working on air pollution, which isn’t a problem yet. Still, C&R Plating is trying to find a way to scrub and cool air at the same time, Lambert said. In July, C&R Plating gave workers their first bonus-pool payment, which currently is 4 percent of wages and is paid three times a year. That percentage could fluctuate, depending on whether C&R is having a phenomenal or slow year, Lambert said.

“If a profit is made, I’m not going to give it to the stinking government. I’m going to give it to my employees,” the down-home Lambert said. Pay starts at $7 an hour and increases to $7.50 after 60 days and $7.60 after 90 days. C&R Plating also provides various benefits to its workers, including full health and cancer insurance coverage for workers and their families, a 401(k) plan, paid classes and working clothing. “When I was working in the shop and my family was young, these were the things that were hardest for me to get Lambert said. Giving to the community is another goal.

The Lamberts want to buy the old plating plant, tear it down, clean up the site and donate the land to Habitat for Humanity, Lambert said. If Habitat doesn’t want the two lots, the couple will put up low-income housing there themselves, he said.

Related posts:

1. George S. May’s Survey Mentioned in The Record Most small-business owners Feels credit relief is critical to their...
2. Dan Hall invests in George S May and it pays off Dan Hall went from being janitor to owner of Church...
3. George S May featured on smallbusinessschool.org website Huntsville, Alabama: Every town needs people like Janet and David...
4. Building A Great Business If you’ve read more than a couple of business improvement...
5. TampaBay media mentions gsm survey Small businesses reduced to survival mode By Jeff Harrington,...