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By Annie M. Stanger
On Thursday, April 10th in the Sky Room of Marquette’s Landmark Inn, approximately 35 staff, ShoreBankers, NMU officials, and outstanding entrepreneurs from across the region joined to celebrate Northern Initiatives ten-year anniversary.
Attendees gathered to enjoy hord’oeuvres and, while visiting, signed-in on a timeline to indicate the number of years of their organizational affiliation. President Dennis West served as master of ceremonies and an icebreaker opened the evening’s formal program. A power point slide presentation featured highlights from the organization’s history. This information will shared in greater detail in a series of articles in an upcoming U.P. Business Today issue and on Northern Initiatives’ web site at www.niupnorth.org.
The focal point of the program came when Northern Initiatives’ ShoreBank board representatives, Ron Grzywinski, Shorebank’s Chairman and Chief Operating Officer and Mary Houghton, ShoreBank’s President introduced ShoreBank’s new Founder’s Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence and NMU members, Dr. Fred Joyal, NMU’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dr. Mike Roy, Vice President fro Finance and Administration, announced NMU’s new Founder’s Award for Excellence in Collaboration.
Receiving Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards were Bob Jacquart of Jacquart Fabric Products and Mike Zacharias of Extreme tool. Both winners were Gogebic County business owners.
Jacquarts Fabric Products –
 Founded in 1958, Jacquart Faabric Products of Ironwood offers an entire range of manufacturing solutions for sewn products. From the design and production stages through to the shipment of goods, their market focus centers on non-apparel products like pet beds, medical products, sporting and recreational goods, tarps, and awnings.
Jacquarts was chosen for recognition because its success offers “reason for optimism in the Gogebic County area’s gloomy economy,” commented Dennis West. “Along with co-honoree, Extreme Tool, Jacquarts represents one of the bright spots in an area that has been losing jobs and population for decades,” West continued.
Jacquart attributes much of his firm’s growth to the phenomenal success of two of the company’s product lines – pet beds and furniture the company manufactures for Drs. Foster & Smith (also a customer of Northern Initiatives) and the Stormy Kromer cap.
Drs. Foster and Smith are a growth leader in their industry and Jacquart’s is a significant part of their operation, supplying 16 percent of their products. The Stormy Kromer cap, which Jacquarts purchased from the Kromer Cap Company in December 2001, has become a runaway success. With the aid of savvy marketing, the traditional Upper Peninsula cap is selling better than ever. In their first year of selling the caps, Jacquart’s tripled sales, and they are aiming for a sevenfold increase next year.
In order to support this volume and the growth it represents, Jacquarts has had to learn how to grow to the point where the company can employ 180 people, and they have turned to Northern Initiatives for assistance. “The significant part that Northern Initiatives has provided has mainly been in their consulting and advising wing, ” Jacquart noted. “They’ve shown us ways to find the resource people we’ve needed as we outgrew our own expertise.” In addition to providing his company with the knowledge and skills it has needed to grow, Jacquart sees Northern Initiatives and its affiliate, ShoreBank, more generally, as positive role models, not only of business success but also of community involvement.
Extreme Tool –
 Extreme Tool is a customer-driven plastic product development company. The company strives to control all aspects of the plastic product development process, from assisting in product and mold design, to mold manufacturing, injection molding, inspection, packaging, and more. They were chosen for recognition because, instead of making excuses, they consistently strive to deliver results that exceed customer expectations. Extreme Tool takes pride in its agility and in its proven ability to custom-tailor solutions to meet customer needs.
The company began operations in July of 1998 with six employees including Zacharias and his three partners – Vice Presidents Rob Paternoster, Trevor Meinke, and Jim Sejbl. Today they employ 28.
“When we first started the business, we had no orders, but held a piece of paper from three potential customers who said they would give us ‘a fair opportunity at their work,’ based upon their previous relationships with us,” remembers Zacharias. “At that point, we hit the ground running and have never turned back.”
In its early days, Extreme Tool was dependent on the automotive industry for 65 percent of its business. After a campaign of purposeful diversification, they’ve branched out into many other areas including medical device manufacturing –a growth market that currently represents 60 percent of their business – and electronics. Diversification has been achieved through aggressive marketing and is reflected in its customer list. The company’s business is spread out among several growth industries, and includes numerous Fortune 500 customers. No one Extreme Tool customer accounts for more than 12 percent of the company’s total sales, though one local company, Ironwood Plastics, has become a very important customer.
Investments in company equipment and facilities have allowed Extreme Tool to support an advanced clean-room molding area and clean-room assembly and test facilities. The company moved into a new building in 2002 and outgrew it after only eight months. Their plant site includes six acres and expansion capability was planned from the start.
“Northern Initiatives has been instrumental in many aspects of our business,” Zacharias said, “including business planning, installation, and training on accounting systems, lending capital as required, and helping us arrange other financing. I am confident in stating that we would not be here without them today.”
Zacharias and his partners pride themselves on being expert toolmakers by trade. They characterize themselves as “hands-on guys” and don’t hesitate to say that know they are very good at what they do. “That said, none of us had the business experience necessary to make it in an ultra-competitive environment,” Zacharias said. “Northern Initiatives helped teach us how by showing us ways to succeed.” The company considers Northern Initiatives one of its most important business partners.
Receiving Excellence in Collaboration Awards were Kevin Walsh of Pettibone and Tom Mize and Luke Jaroche of Sustainable Forest Products.
Pettibone –
 Baraga manufacturer, Pettibone’s primary business focus is making and distributing heavy equipment for the material handling industry. Recently, they’ve concentrated on developing a new strategy to build the best performing, most reliable, highest quality equipment in the industry. They were recognized during this event for the tremendous improvements they’ve made in their business due a concentration on “lean manufacturing” and “lean thinking,” which they define as a continuous process of eliminating wastes in all parts of their organization.
Pettibone, a company that currently employs about 90 people, has four main product lines: rough terrain material handling equipment, rough terrain telehandlers, railroad maintenance equipment, and geophysical equipment. In business since 1881, the company has been building equipment in Baraga since 1951. Pettibone’s presence in the U.P. can be traced back to the invention of a rough terrain material handler – the Cary-Lift. L’Anse resident Phil LaTendresse created this piece of equipment in the late 1940’s, later selling the manufacturing and marketing rights for it to Pettibone in 1951. Today, in addition to the main assembly operation in Baraga, Pettibone also has a machine shop operation, which specializes in hydraulic cylinders, and a geophysical operation in Louisiana.
Pettibone’s greatest accomplishment during the past year has been “to bring all of our employees together as a team and as a family,” according to Walsh. “In doing so, we were able to weather the current and prolonged economic storm using the slow period to make improvements to the operation. These improvements have made the company more profitable and flexible than the business had ever been in the past.”
“We know where Northern Initiatives’ strengths lie,” Walsh said, “and we know our own weaknesses or limitations. When we run into a situation in any part of our operation where we think Northern Initiatives can assist, we pick up the phone and give them a call. Northern Initiatives has played a critical and key role in Pettibone’s success over the past several years.”
Northern Initiatives has assisted Pettibone with kaizen events, shop floor improvements, implementation of quality programs, development of marketing strategies, and has acted as a sounding board as the company continues to make decisions that are driving the business forward. In many ways, they view Northern Initiatives as an extension of the Pettibone family.
Sustainable Forest Products –
 Sustainable Forest Products of Michigan, Inc. was formed in 1998 when a group of wood product entrepreneurs committed to quality, reopened a dry-kiln in Newberry. Their mission is to supply the hardwood industry with what they consider to be the best hard maple produced in the nation.
Owners Luke Jaroche and Tom Mize have grown their company to the point at which it currently employs 14. They were recognized for creating added value for area wood products and for opening new markets for Upper Peninsula lumber.
Sustainable Forest Products centers their energies on maintaining a consistently high-quality product and providing excellent service to their customers. There product line includes hard maple lumber for the cabinet, millwork, and furniture industries. Their target customers are the high-end manufactures in these industries.
During the past year, Sustainable Forest Products has grown their market share and market area despite unstable economic conditions. They’ve also managed to meet most of their set goals.
The company has turned to Northern Initiatives for equipment loans, which they credit for making manufacturing process improvements possible.
Annie Stanger serves in the role of Communications Coordinator at Northern Initiatives, which provides loans to U.P. business start-ups and for business expansion projects. Business development and consulting services are also available to area businesses and manufacturers. Their central office is located in Marquette. For more information about Northern Initiatives’ products and services call 228-5571.
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