By VELVET SPICER

Continuous reinvention has helped Caldwell Manufacturing Co. stay on top of its game for 13 decades. But one thing has not changed: the com-pany’s dedication to its core values.

“We are strongly values based,” said Caldwell President and CEO Eric Mertz, pointing to a sign listing the company’s eight values. The Manitou Road facility is peppered with the signs, a gentle reminder to staff ers and visitors alike that Cald-well is serious about what has made it a success.

“We’re obsessed with the customer, safety is our highest priority and we treat everybody with respect,” Mertz said, ticking off some of the win-dow and door hardware manufacturer’s tenets. “We work together, we innovate, we’re committed and we have unquestionable integrity in every-thing we do.

“We invest pretty heavily so that we talk the same language when it comes to those things,” he added. “And that’s part of how we make de-cisions—it’s part of how we recruit. And we truly hire and fire by our values.”

Founded by William Caldwell and Allen Bouch-er in June 1888, Caldwell Manufacturing at first was more like a hardware company, Mertz said, making nutmeg grinders, shaving mirrors, door stops and more.

By the early 1900s, Caldwell Manufacturing had reinvented itself and was supplying clock spring counterbalances for window construction, which dramatically reduced the invasive nature of repairing windows at the time. By this time Boucher had bought out Caldwell and the Boucher family still owns the company today.

In 1948 Caldwell developed the first spiral bal-ance product, called Spirex.

“That was just a revolutionary change in the window industry, probably the last revolutionary change in the window industry,” Mertz said. “In that product line we kind of got out of everything else and that made us a national manufacturer in the ’40s for window balances.”

By the 1950s, sales of Caldwell products totaled more than $1 million, as the company capitalized on the growth in home building following World War II. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Caldwell introduced breakthrough new products including its weather strip balances.

During the 1970s, Caldwell developed a system for wood and aluminum windows to tilt inside for safe and easy cleaning. That same decade, Cald-well partnered with an English window manufac-turer to supply products to the U.K. and Europe-an markets. Eventually, Caldwell bought out the partner and established Caldwell Hardware United Kingdom.

The company experienced explosive growth for many decades, and until about 2000, Caldwell

continued its focus on window hardware. “During the last housing recession the world

fell apart. We were 100 percent relying on build-ing products and it went from 2 million housing starts to 200,000 housing starts in this country,” Mertz said. “So the market was just decimated. We survived that storm and as we came back out that market was never going to be big enough again.”

That’s when Caldwell implemented a diversifi-cation plan.

“Now we do a lot more commercial work,” Mertz said, noting that the window balances that once were 98 percent of the company’s business now represent roughly 65 to 70 percent.

Two facets of the business have Mertz excited for the future: 3D printing and window and door automation.

“We invest pretty heavily in innovation,” he said. “We do a lot with advanced engineering. For four years now we’ve had a plastics 3D printer so we can print off all of our own prototype parts and test them.”

And Caldwell recently purchased a metal 3D printer.

“It’s revolutionary,” Mertz said. “It’ll change everything.”

To put it in perspective, Mertz said, some time ago it might take 10 to 12 weeks to make a prod-uct prototype and then another 16 to 20 weeks to test it.

“Now, our customer can come in and say, ‘Can you do this?’ and we can design the part, print it,

go to lunch and that afternoon say, ‘Is this what you’re talking about?’ and it works in a window,” he explained.

A plastics 3D printer might cost $100,000, Mertz said, while a metal printer could cost up-wards of $200,000. A hefty investment, to be sure, but Caldwell invests between $3 million and $5 million annually in its facilities, he said.

Caldwell also is working on automation through its INMOTION Automation Systems division, which automates very high end residential doors. The technology, which is not yet on the market, also will be used commercially for Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.

“We would take a 70-foot panoramic door over the pool and lanai and automate the whole thing to open up,” Mertz explained. The concept will inte-grate with other smart home technology. “If you want to look at your phone to see if your windows are shut or your windows are locked, you can’t do that without putting technology into it. We’ve been pouring a ton of resources into our automa-tion side.

“What got us here is not going to get us to to-morrow,” Mertz added. “So we spend a lot of time reinventing ourselves every single year, trying to figure out what we’ve got to do different.”

In its first 130 years, Caldwell has grown from a couple of guys whose shop made hardware store

findings to a global manufacturer with 600 em-ployees, including roughly 150 in Rochester. With seven manufacturing facilities and two distribution centers, Caldwell annually posts about $100 mil-lion in sales.

Caldwell manufactures more than 1 million parts per day through its assembly plants and an-nually runs through some 18,000 miles of stain-less strip stock that is turned into Constant Force Springs.

“One day we’ll be able to circle the earth with the amount of metal that runs through” the compa-ny’s Williamsport, Md., facility, Mertz said.

The company takes training and education seri-ously, said Caldwell’s chief human resources offi-cer Gidgett Ingalls.

“I think Caldwell is an incredible learning orga-nization,” Ingalls said. “Eric very much believes that the key differentiator is our people, and is a huge advocate for learning and feeding your brain.”

In fact, the company has a book club that meets every six weeks.

“When we first started it was a book based on each of our core values, and then it kind of mi-grated into hot business topics and what can we extract from the readings that would help improve everyone’s effectiveness as leaders, as employees, as coworkers,” she explained.

The company has a leadership summit annual-ly for employees, at which keynote speakers talk about business ideas and trends, and Caldwell also participates in a number of local charitable events and organizations.

“That’s part of being a private company is that you’re more connected to the community,” Mertz said, noting that Caldwell has participated in Warrior Salute Veteran Services, Breast Cancer Association and most recently the Four Diamonds Campaign for childhood cancer research.

Caldwell has helped build five houses through Flower City Habitat for Humanity and staffers who volunteer get a day off to do so, Ingalls said.

“I think the owners are incredibly generous and really believe in giving back to the community and investing in the company,” she said.

Mertz said the next 130 years hold more of the same in that regard, as well as continued growth and innovation on the manufacturing floor.

“If anybody could answer that question and tell you what it’s going to look like they’re either full of it or invest a lot of money with them,” he said, laughing. “Because there’s no way I could have told you we’d be doing what we’re doing now five years ago.

“What I think we’ve got to do is be fast and nimble and flexible and adapt,” Mertz added. “I think it holds tons of opportunity and I think we’ll be a quarter of a billion before too long.”

VOLUME 34, NUMBER 19 WWW.RBJ.NET AUgUsT 10, 2018

Reprinted with permission from RBJ. Copyright © 2018. All rights reserved.

Company values, innovation keep Caldwell thriving

The window parts maker constantly reinvents itself

stock photo

“We’re obsessed with the customer, safety is our highest priority and we treat everybody with

respect.”

— Eric Mertz, President and CEO, Caldwell