By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Holland-based Walway Enterprises recently received the prestigious Supplier of the Year Award from Benteler Automotive, the only North American metal stamping company to receive the honor. Walway, 13341 Quincy Avenue, creates small metal stampings for the automotive and furniture industries and has added 48 jobs since 2002.
“We provided 30 different automotive parts to Benteler in 2007, shipping a total of 913,000 units to them,” says James Harding, spokesperson, who moved his wife and three young children to Grand Haven six years ago to help the William “Spike” Walker family get the company running.
“We got the award for safety, delivery, quality and pricing for shipments to their Grand Rapids and Indiana plants, and were recognized because we had a very, very low rate of rejection which is unheard of for our industry.”
Innovative strategies and determination to create quality products drove Walway through the growth period after the company, originally founded in Detroit in 1932, saw hard times, had to close and started up again. And while the recent growth has been steady, the company, affected by recent automotive strikes, had an unexpected layoff of a handful of workers last month.
“We’re seeing the worst of it right now,” Harding says, “so we’re treading water and waiting to come back stronger than ever.”
As a result, the company is ready to diversify its client base and pursue new areas of manufacture, especially with products that require small metal stampings, such as toys and medical devices. Currently, ten percent of the company’s jobs come from non-automotive products. And with 2010 automobile designs already in the works, Harding expects to have a full crew again after the automobile manufacturers’ summer shutdown and to continue the company’s growth.
Source: James Harding, Walway Enterprises; Lakeshore Advantage
Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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