The Machines Of Growth Cross Generations At Allied | Auburn firm says its work has become more complex over time
I’ve been surprised in writing this column by the number of manufacturers in the region that are family-owned, and in this column I’ll highlight yet another: Allied Machine Products in Auburn.
Some of the companies I’ve visited and written about, Hyde Tools in Southbridge and Walker Magnetics of Worcester, for example, have been part of their founding families for two, three, four generations or more.
At Allied, the line of ownership is pretty clear. The company was started in 1946 in Worcester by Louis Weber, Russell Weber, Millard Bassett and Harry Carlson. Today, it’s owned and operated by Peter Weber, who took over as president of Allied when his father Russell retired in 1987.
If you’re thinking that this sounds like one of those companies that got its start in a basement with just a few employees, you are correct.
Old And New
When the Webers, Millard Bassett and Harry Carlson started the company, it was with old equipment and 10 people in the basement of the Parker Manufacturing building at 85 Prescott St. in Worcester, currently the home of ECI Biotech and other modern offices.
According to Ann Weber, Peter’s wife and the company’s treasurer, Allied has always been a contract manufacturer. They don’t design the products they machine and sometimes they have no idea what those parts will be used for.
Those machined parts and assemblies are shipped to customers in the defense, plumbing, aerospace, heavy equipment and other industries.
What has changed, is the complexity of the parts Allied makes. “It’s changed a lot,” Weber said. “It’s gone from simple, manufactured pieces to complex assemblies. Many of the parts we made years and years ago that were simple are made overseas now. We have evolved into doing more complicated work.”
The company is very aware, Weber said, that it must focus on growth. “If you don’t grow, you become stagnant,” she said.
Still, among Allied’s 60 or so employees are many who have worked for the company for more than 20 years, including a plant manager who’s been there for 45 and began working for the company when Peter Weber’s grandfather was still running it.
Along with Allied in the Interchange Industrial Park is a business called Western Carriers. At first glance, one might think this is a delivery company, which would make sense; Westec Drive is also home to a FedEx Ground facility.
But Western Carriers, which began its life generations ago as Western Pork on Franklin Street in Worcester, doesn’t deliver packages. In fact, it doesn’t really deliver anything. The company is the largest warehouse of wine and liquor in the country. Its corporate headquarters are in Auburn, but it has more than 2 million square feet of warehouse space in New Jersey and California that holds massive quantities of wine and spirits for distributors.
Bob Fougere, the general manager in Auburn, said the company has one client currently warehousing nearly 250,000 cases of wine at a Western Carriers facility.
Got news for our Industrial Strength column? E-mail WBJ Managing Editor Matthew L. Brown at mbrown@wbjournal.com.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments