Manufacturer of the Year Finalists – Small Business

(50 employees or less)

On Oct 2, 2017

Belleville Wire Cloth 

Belleville Wire Cloth (BWC) is a family-owned custom shop that makes essentially the same product it made at its founding in 1919: wire cloth and wire mesh products. Despite its size, BWC has a worldwide reputation as an industry leader. Because of its size, BWC can responsively adjust production schedules and processes to ensure that all customer needs are met. BWC grew so much over the past decade that it purchased a production facility in Fairfield to complement its Cedar Grove site. Continually investing in new equipment and technology, BWC installed a waterjet cutting system that eliminated the need to outsource custom cutting of wire mesh parts, thereby saving several days in the manufacturing process. At BWC, there is little turnover and everyone knows the overarching philosophy: T.E.A.M., Together, Everyone Achieves More.

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eMachineShop

Mahwah-based eMachineShop pioneered virtual manufacturing in 2003 when it released its on-line eMachineShop CAD software with integrated costing and ordering functionality. The company-created link between the consumer and production with the software-focused business model enables users to create and purchase custom metal and plastic parts without leaving the software – or their home or office. Customers download the free eMachineShop CAD software, design their parts, use the built-in DFM (Design For Manufacturability) checking tool, click for a price, and order. eMachineShop also offers video tutorials and a software help guide for both beginners and experienced CAD users. eMachineShop staff continually strives to streamline internal processes, improve the CAD software to make designing and ordering custom parts as fast and easy as possible, and add features that will make the software easier to use and more powerful.

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Groezinger Provisions, dba Alexian Pate & Specialty Meats

Laurie Cummins is the owner of Groezinger Provisions, Inc., which makes and markets two brands: Alexian Pate & Specialty Meats and Groezinger brand European-style sausages and smoked meats. This year, the Neptune-based company celebrates 35 years in business. Cummins became the corporate president in 1994, at the passing of her husband, Ewald. She transformed Groezinger from a small business into one of the leading pâté and European-style meats manufacturers in the US, with 21 different varieties of pate made with real, premium ingredients, without preservatives, additives or flavor enhancers. Alexian Pate is sold to specialty food distributors who place Alexian products in high-end grocery chains, specialty food stores, cheese shops and wine and liquor stores. Groezinger attributes its success to its employees and believes without them, success would not be possible.

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I.W. Tremont 

Founded in 1979, I.W. Tremont is a niche manufacturing company headquartered in Hawthorne that produces high purity porous and technical materials for various filtration applications. In a competitive industry dominated by divisions of multi-billion-dollar conglomerates, I.W. Tremont has been successful by emphasizing its highly efficient and nimble approach to product development and customer service. Building on its strong foundation for its growth, I.W. Tremont collaborates with local contractors and development researchers. It has partnered with New Jersey universities and colleges, including Bergen Community College. Tremont and BCC collaborated on technologies related to the environmental sciences field. Recently, I.W. Tremont joint ventured with a New Jersey-based Contract Research Organization (CRO) to develop a whole blood separator media for the medical and diagnostics market. This highly successful project positions the company well for its planned expansion into this field.

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Koba

In 2016, Koba Corp. celebrated its 50th anniversary as a family-owned, Middlesex-born and based injection molding business. Since the second generation took over the company’s daily operations in 2010, Koba has become a global player in the horticulture industry on molding – using recycled polypropylene to create a broad line of injection molded pots, baskets, trays and related products of all sizes and colors for the plant-growing industry. New ventures include working with large retailers anxious to increase their business with American manufacturers, establishing warehouses in other states that will be supplied by Koba’s Middlesex headquarters, and adding a thermoformed plastics capability in-house. Since 2010, Koba has grown from an average of 15 employees and $1.5 million in sales to an average of over 30 employees and almost $5 million in anticipated 2017 sales.

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ZaGO

Newark-based ZaGO Manufacturing Company is a leading manufacturer in the self-sealing fastener industry – sealing screws, sealing nuts, switch boots and crystal switch seals that protect clients’ mission-critical equipment in more than 50 different industry sectors, including military contractors, aerospace, electronics, construction, medical, marine, motor vehicle, and consumer product. The fasteners, for example, are designed with full metal-to-metal contact, sealing in liquids and gases and sealing out environmental contaminants such as water and dust.

ZaGO began in 1994 as a two-employee business in Newark’s New Jersey Institute of Technology Enterprise Development Center small business incubator. In 2002, it moved to a 100-year-old building in the South Ward, which it completely renovated to meet production and administrative needs. Over the last five years, Zago’s revenues and profits have grown by double digits and its staff to 25.

 

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