Lutco envisions expanded future
Dug Stowe, president of Lutco, Inc.
Worcester manufacturer Lutco, Inc. spent $1.5 million without a specific idea of what to do with its new purchase.
Donald “Dug” Stowe, the vice president of operations for the bearings manufacturer, helped facilitate the company's purchase of the facility adjacent to its filled-to-the-brim Cambridge Street operations in late December, with the idea it would expand its international operations further.
“It's going to take a lot of investment to get to the point where we can even use it,” Stowe said, but luckily, “we're not in a super, super hurry. We're not under any obligation to change it over by next week.”
It was Stowe's grandfather, actually, who built the Worcester manufacturer called Lundquist Tool and Manufacturing Company into Lutco, Inc., which today makes ball bearings for agricultural, lawn care and trucking customers, such as John Deere.
Lutco does metal stamping for various markets, a practice it has maintained since it was founded in 1945. Back then, the company was a metal stamper for World War II military contracts, but it shifted its core business to deal with declines in the New England manufacturing base.
The company moved to its plant at 677 Cambridge St. in 1957, and since then has opened two other plants in the city -- one on Grove Street and one in the Higgins Industrial Park.
Last month, Lutco announced that it bought the 65,000-square-foot industrial building at 70 Quinsigamond Ave., the former site of the Castle Metals industrial building for $1.5 million. The building shares a parking lot with its Cambridge Street facility.
Another $200K in upgrades
Buying the building, Dug Stowe said, was a no brainer.
The new facility has 24-foot high ceilings and overhead cranes and is all on one level. Plus, it's higher above the ground than its neighboring building, which is important because Lutco's current plant has been known to flood during heavy rainstorms.
Although Stowe has a vague idea of what he'd like to do with the new building, he said it will be awhile before specifics are ironed out. The building needs an electrical upgrade, for starters, because right now it only has 400 amps, when it really needs about 3,000. Stowe estimates the company will have to invest over $200,000 in upgrades.
Lutco has been on the lookout for more space for a while, Stowe said, because the current manufacturing floor is packed to the brim with machinery and inventory, with just one loading dock.
Staying power
Many manufacturers have come and gone since Lutco was established in the mid-20th century. Jack Healy, president of the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership, said that tells him the companies that survived the industry's many changes have staying power. Lutco president and Dug's father John Stowe is a longtime board member at MassMEP and friend of Healy's.
“[John Stowe] has competitors all around the world. There are many people who cut and shape iron like he does, and they go to his customers and his customers have stayed with him because they get the quality of his product,” Healy said.
Lutco's expansion is a sign that they are making an investment in their future, he said.
“When you move into a new building, or a new apartment, you're going to make some investments in it. You're making that investment based on the future. You want a bigger place, and you want to do more business,” Healy said. “Companies like [Lutco], they made the investments, they've been in the business for a long time, they have staying power.”
The love of the job
Lutco has about 110 employees among the three plants. It's premature to speculate as to whether or not they will hire anyone new as a result of the new building, Dug Stowe said.
“We are really fortunate to have a terrific employee base now. Making sure they're supported fully and engaged right now is our primary focus,” Stowe said.
Stowe may work on the administrative side of things now, but he has fond memories of working on the floor when he was younger. Manufacturing is the perfect job for someone who likes hands-on activities.
“There's something about seeing the product you make at the end of the shipping dock … it's a bit of a rush. What they've made. It's the real deal, it's no joke, it's something to be proud of,” he said.
Part of the challenge of recruiting a skilled manufacturing workforce is the stigma that the jobs are dangerous and gritty – the kind of job your grandfather might have done at a factory when he was young so you wouldn't have to.
Manufacturing jobs actually require a lot of complex skill and can generate great wages, Stowe said.
“People have made wonderful lives for themselves working in manufacturing,” Stowe said. “People say, 'It's not your grandfather's manufacturing.' Well, what's wrong with that? Your grandfather's manufacturing built this country.”
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