Manufacturing has played a prominent role in Connecticut”™s economy since Colonial times, when the state”™s metal buttons began to replace British imports. Despite manufacturing”™s tumultuous history in the United States, a number of manufacturing companies in Connecticut have been able to survive for centuries. How? Through adaptation and innovation.
Though Schwerdtle Stamp Co. in Bridgeport can”™t say it goes back to the first settlement, it has been engraving and die making since 1879. It has survived both world wars, the offshoring movement and deindustrialization in the state.
“Looking back,” said Kathy Saint, the company”™s fourth-generation president, “I would have to say that the secret to longevity is directly tied to a company”™s ability to actively scan their customer base and marketplace for trends.”
She considers the overall challenge of reinventing her family”™s business, to ensure its survival, a large part of her job.
“One of the big dangers to small manufacturers is that they are often so focused on managing their production, managing their costs and trying to keep their heads above water,” Saint said. “They often don”™t have the resources or habit of doing technology scanning and analyzing market trends.”
Schwerdtle originally grew out of the booming brass industry in Connecticut, selling steel stamps to mostly local machine makers and metal formers. But after World War II, many manufacturing companies moved south and overseas to avoid unions and use cheaper labor. Realizing this, Saint”™s father and uncle redeveloped the company to match a new trend in New York and New Jersey: plastics. Many of the company”™s customers were adapting to the cheaper manufacturing technology in the 1960s and 1970s and Schwerdtle followed suit.
“If your customer”™s world is changing, the suppliers who recognize this first and adapt will be the ones that last,” Saint said. “Sometimes this means they have to acquire companies that have the new technology required to compete. Sometimes they can develop it in-house; sometimes it means that they have to outsource the commodity parts of their business.”
Bead Industries Inc., originally founded in Bridgeport in 1914, started out manufacturing bead chains, commonly seen on military dog tags or ceiling fan pull cords. The product was a big success, but rather than stop there, the company began creating new products out of the same technology it used to make the bead chains.
In the 1920s, the company developed radio contact pins out of the technology, which eventually spurred a sub company, Bead Electronics. Today based in Milford, the company makes small metal parts for the automotive, telecommunications and lighting industries. Though the technology of bead chains is at the root of the company”™s success, it”™s a simple commodity at this point, said Ron Andreoli, Bead Industries president. It”™s no longer a growth element and chains are actually manufactured in South Korea now.
“Over decade to decade, year to year, generation to generation, we”™ve never been static,” said Andreoli. “We”™ve outsourced when necessary, relied and invested in technology and never pigeonholed ourselves.”
The current CEO is the fourth-generation family member to run the business and his daughter, representing the fifth generation, currently works in finance at the company. “Innovation is at the core of it,” Andreoli said, reflecting on the company”™s key to success. “That”™s how we”™ve maintained a s
