United Die Company Celebrates 75 Years

Family-owned manufacturer has been offering high-quality products for generations.

For Kearny-based United Die Company (UDICO), a family-owned manufacturer that serves the cold-drawn industries, it all began in 1940, when John Kontra, Sr. founded the company after a patent expired, affecting his former employer.  Kontra, Sr. successfully operated UDICO until his untimely death in an automobile accident, in 1953.

His grandson, Jim Kontra, tells NEW JERSEY BUSINESS magazine, “My grandmother was under a lot of pressure from many to people who were saying, ‘Oh, just sell the business. You’re never going to be able to keep it running.’ But, she just stuck to her guns, and said it was her husband’s dream. She said, ‘No, I am going to keep it going until my son, John, can get out of college, and come and help me run the business.’”

John Kontra, Jr., an engineer who graduated from NJIT, indeed kept UDICO operating as a second generation family-owned business. Today, John Kontra, Sr.’s grandson (and John Kontra, Jr.’s son) – the aforementioned Jim Kontra – is UDICO’s president, and other family members are also employed at the company. Kontra says, “I am the third generation; my father passed away four years ago, so I have been at the helm and trying to do my best imitation of him, up to this point.”

UDICO’s Success

In broader terms, Kontra, explains, “When I look at whatever makes a good company, it comes down to the people you have working for you. We have, over the years, brought in [good employees], and I guess we were lucky to start out with some really good ones. Through word of mouth, we have gotten other good [employees], and these workers are kind of like our family. We care about them; we are not the typical corporation that when they hit retirement age, they say, ‘Well, you are gone; you are out of here.’  We let guys work until they feel like they want to retire, because I’ve seen it through the years that some of the older guys – they are some of our best workers, actually. They have certainly helped us remain viable.”

Kontra adds that what also sets UDICO apart from its competitors is its ability to “center” its product. He says, “We can take raw tungsten carbide and put it in a mold, in a furnace, and then create a tungsten carbide nib. It is hard metal that we can then machine, which gives us an advantage since we can do it more quickly than [our competitors]. We can tailor it exactly for what our customers need; it has certainly helped us throughout the years.”

Overall, UDICO offers tungsten carbide: drawing dies, shaving dies, extrusion dies, swaging dies, mandrels and plugs, sectional dies and special tooling. It also offers die design.

The product line has evolved over the years. In UDICO’s early days, it manufactured wire dies, which were a smaller-diameter realm of carbide tooling (fine wires), which were sometimes used for motors and windings.  The company then purchased larger-scale tools, and, in the 1980s, even manufactured tungsten carbine ties that were shipped to a California company. That company, in turn, processed the metal at perhaps minus 400 degrees. The tubes were then implemented on the International Space Station (ISS).

Kontra adds, “We have been fortunate enough that our product is not something that is mass-produced, and that [could be affected] by off-shoring to the Chinese. [Our product] is specialized, and our customers order custom tools in ‘one’s and two’s.’”

UDICO has developed tool-and-die making techniques over the years, and has integrated computer-based CNC equipment in conjunction with its expertise. Kontra says, “We are going to continue to modernize our equipment. We do have a couple of new machines on our wish list that we would like to purchase, to aid in our manufacturing process.  Also, we would like to move from our current location to maybe a bigger building, to expand our operations.”

He concludes, “If you look around today, basically we are the last of a dying breed.  We are sole survivors, here in New Jersey, for this type of tooling and product.”

Land Acquired for 9-Mile Essex-Hudson Greenway Trail

Integrity House Awarded $4 Million Grant

Cummins Inc., Hartz Mountain Industries Announce Completion of Service and Support Facility in Kearny