June 1, 2025 • 44 mins
What does it take to grow a garage-based tool and die shop into a thriving 100,000-square-foot manufacturing powerhouse with over 100 employees? According to Jeff Sheridan, co-owner and vice president of Ahaus Tool & Engineering, the answer is simple: purpose.
In this episode of The Hub, host Michael Allen of Manpower Richmond sits down with Jeff to explore his unique journey—from designing HVAC systems for luxury vehicles at General Motors to helping lead a multi-generational manufacturing company in Richmond, Indiana. After earning his graduate degree from Stanford, Jeff was looking for more than corporate prestige—he wanted to create tangible impact. That opportunity came in 1997 when he joined Ahaus, a place where his technical expertise could make a lasting difference.
Founded in 1946 by William and Irvin Ahaus, the company has grown far beyond its tool and die roots. Today, Ahaus specializes in custom automation equipment, work-holding fixtures for CNC machines, and precision machining. The company has smartly diversified its client base—from primarily automotive to also include construction, medical, transportation, and drainage systems—helping it stay resilient through economic changes.
Ahaus is also known for its nationally accredited apprenticeship program, launched in the late 1970s. While many local manufacturers moved away from training investments, Ahaus doubled down—graduating over 50 apprentices who now fill roles in machining, engineering, management, and even accounting. It’s a testament to the company’s commitment to people, not just products.
Jeff also addresses the challenge of succession planning. With no family members currently in line to take the reins, he and co-owner Kevin Ahaus are building a strong internal leadership team to keep the company locally owned and community-driven—avoiding the trend of selling out to outside investors who lack ties to Richmond.
This episode goes beyond machines and manufacturing—it’s about leadership, community, and building something that lasts.
🌐 Learn more:
www.ahaus.com
www.mprichmond.com
🎧 Subscribe to The Hub for more conversations with the people shaping Richmond’s future.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Hub Podcast recorded right here in
Richmond, indiana.
I'm your host, michael Allen,and on the Hub, our mission is
to share stories of peoplemaking a difference in our
region.
In addition to hosting thepodcast, I work with a wonderful
team of staffing professionalsat Manpower.
Manpower is helping companiesall over East Central Indiana
find staffing so they cancontinue to grow and thrive.
(00:24):
Find out how we can help yourcompany at mprichmondcom.
With us today on this episodeof the Hub is Jeff Sheridan,
owner vice president of A HouseTool and Engineering located
here in Richmond, indiana.
Jeff, welcome to the Hub, thankyou, good to be here.
Hey, we go back a lot of years,jeff, and back when our boys
(00:44):
started playing T-ball.
That was almost 25 years ago.
You and I were talking theother day I think that's a
pretty good number and from thenwe've crossed paths, golfing
and business, serving togetheron the board of directors of the
Boys and Girls Club, and I canjust tell you it's been a real
pleasure for me to get to knowyou all these years and I'm
(01:06):
really grateful that you agreedto come on to the hub today.
So thank you for doing that.
Yeah, thanks, mike.
I'd like to start with our hubtradition, this is always like
to hear people's answers to this.
And, going back, what was yourvery first job?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Jack, what was your very first job?
Well, my very first paying job.
I was actually very muchpart-time lifeguard at the local
high school pool where I grewup.
That was before I was oldenough to get a real job and all
that.
And then I'd say my first kindof real job was flipping burgers
at McDonald's in high schoolDid that for a while and that's
(01:49):
a job.
I think that builds character.
I've always said that you knowpretty much everybody ought to
get a job in some sort of foodindustries.
Absolutely Helps you appreciatepotentially not being in that
industry.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Right, well, I did a similar, had a similar job, uh,
flipping burgers at anotherplace called burger chef.
I don't know if you rememberthat and uh, but uh, you know, I
think part of it, that age waspart of it was kind of fun and
but it's just uh, but uh, it's akind of an entryway for a lot
(02:22):
of young adults or teenagersjust to kind of get the taste
for what it means to worksomewhere, and so yeah, so the
lifeguard was this indoor pool.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, I was in the indoor pool, I was.
I was on the swim team in highschool and you know they had
open swims once or twice a weekor something like that, and uh,
so I just lifeguarded there andearned, know, earned a few
dollars, uh, uh, while I was.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
That was probably when I was like 14, 15 years old
yeah, I think that's a verycommon uh occupation for kids
that are on swim teams orwhatever they do the
lifeguarding at the, at the gymsor country clubs or whatever
right.
One thing I'd like to ask youis if you just kind of share
with our followers aboutyourself, kind of where you grew
(03:07):
up, your family, education,kids, career, all that kind of
stuff.
Sure, that's a lot of stuff.
Yeah, it's a lot, we'll workthrough it.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I'll jump in.
So yeah, I grew up in southeastMichigan, just north of Flint
Michigan, a small little bedroomcommunity north of Flint
Michigan, in a small littlebedroom community.
My dad was a teacher in theneighboring school district not
the school district where I went.
My mom ended up gettinginvolved as a business
administrator at a differentschool district.
(03:35):
So lots of education in ourbackgrounds and our family.
But I grew up there and it's ahuge automotive area of the
country obviously and GeneralMotors had a huge presence in
the Flint area.
You know there's probably justabout everybody I knew had some
sort of family member thatworked either for GM or for one
(03:57):
of the supporting companies andyou know that kind of got me
involved in thinking aboutmanufacturing and engineering.
I had a chance between myjunior and senior year in high
school to be a summer co-op atAC Sparkplug where they
literally make sparkplugs, andthat was a really good
(04:19):
opportunity for me to kind ofunderstand manufacturing.
So I grew up in that area, hadan older brother and an older
sister and ended up going towhat's now Kettering University
in Flint Michigan it used to beGMI, it was actually owned by
General Motors as a engineeringand in management educational
(04:41):
school, got my degree inelectrical engineering there and
co-opt with GM you know allthrough college and then ended
up staying in that area, workedfor the Buick Motor Division,
which then became the largeluxury car division of GM.
That's also where I met my wifeTricia.
(05:02):
That's also where I met my wifeTricia Tricia's, from Richmond,
and grew up here, but then shealso went to GMI at the time and
so we met there and ended upgetting married and lived in
Fenton, michigan, just north ofAnn Arbor, still working for GM.
I was fortunate enough that GMpaid for my graduate degree.
(05:26):
I went out to StanfordUniversity and got a degree in
manufacturing systemsengineering and came back and
continued to work for GM forseveral years and then kind of
saw that working for that largeautomotive company just a huge
company, was not something thatI wanted to do long term and so
(05:49):
I had started looking around fordifferent jobs and at the time,
obviously Trish is from thistown and I knew about A-House
Tool and Engineering from herfamily and knowing Rick A-House
and Kevin A-House from herfamily and knowing Rick A House
and Kevin A House, and at thetime, you know, trisha's mom had
(06:09):
been diagnosed with breastcancer and so a lot of reasons,
you know.
As I was looking for jobs, Iended up talking to Rick and
Kevin about the possibility ofcoming to Richmond and to work
at A House, and it was a goodfit at the time and so we moved
down here and that way we couldbe close to to her family and a
new, totally differentopportunity for me to work for a
(06:30):
small business, but still onethat's strong in manufacturing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
What year was that?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
We moved, made the move here in 1997.
Okay, 97.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yep, so I'll back up some kind of obscure question.
But back when you were doingthe working at gm, what was kind
of the hot car back, did youremember?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
what was kind of yeah , I think probably one of the
big ones was the, the buick graynational.
Do you remember that car?
I don't know if I did.
Grand nat, grand national is akind of a hyped up.
Uh, it was all.
They all came in, just black,all blacked out.
Uh, they had a turbocharged v6engine in it.
Um, you know, it's still got apretty good cult following today
(07:13):
.
Okay, yeah, so the grand nash.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I just don't, yeah, picking up that name so what was
the big luxury car?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
you said you were working a luxury luxury car, uh,
probably the uh, that was thecadillac, the big one, the
cadillac deville at the time.
You know, I remember those umworked on a lot of those, worked
on the ultimobile products anduh, one of the things I had to
do or got an opportunity to dowas to a new car development
program, kind of worked on itfrom the very early stages, did
(07:41):
a lot of prototype development.
But it was the, the BuickRiviera, big two-seater, or not
two-seater but two-door coupe,but it was a luxury coupe.
And then the Oldsmobileequivalent of that was I can't
remember the name of it, but itwas a four-door, had a big 4.0
liter V8 engine in it.
(08:03):
I did a lot of development onthose, those two vehicles, uh,
fairly early in my career Ithink my, my grandmother, uh,
had a buick riviera.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It was like a full-size car but it's only two
doors.
Yeah, absolutely yeah it was.
It was kind of a cool car, Iremember.
I mean hers was like a white,big two-door but yeah, that's
cool.
I just I think those things arekind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I mean, things have changed dramatically since those
days and uh auto with cars andtheir production today and yeah,
and I think you know one of thethings I I think I mentioned to
you when we were talking theother day is during that time I
was doing a lot of heating andcooling system development on
those vehicles and um with thatI did a lot of travel, testing
(08:46):
the cars and different weatherconditions, but we tended to
want to look for really hotweather and really cold weather.
So in the summer times I spenta lot of time in the Phoenix
area and in South Texas, kind ofalong the coast of Texas area,
to get really hot, humid weather, and in the winter times we
would go to Northern Michigan,to Northern Minnesota and up
(09:07):
into Canada trying to, you know,find really cold weather to
test the vehicles.
And I always said I'm goingexactly opposite the way I
should be going right For sure.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
It's interesting you mentioned that about.
I know you know Roger Golden.
He was on the hub early on whenwe started this and one of his
jobs was in automotive relatedand it was like he was one of
those people that would take thecalls of people who were upset
about their car.
I had some problem with it, sohe didn't stay in that super
(09:39):
long.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
That's a good character building job too.
Yeah, that's another one.
Yeah, that's a good characterbuilding job.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, that's another one.
Yeah, so when you were in likeyour junior senior year, you got
into the program that kind ofled you.
I mean, were you feeling prettyconfident about what you wanted
to do as a career back as ajunior and senior?
Because not every person knowsthat.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, no, for some reason, reason I, you know,
pretty much most of the waythrough high school I just I
felt like I wanted to get anengine into engineering, which
is a little bit odd becausenobody really in my family was
into engineering.
Um, but uh, I was, you know,really liked the math and
science type of things and, um,you know, some of the computer
programming that I did, and so Ithink that that and the
(10:26):
exposure through doing a summerco-op really kind of got me
hooked on it.
And I've said that to a lot ofpeople, that you know a lot of
young people coming out of highschool these days they don't
know what they want to do, right, and and I think that's OK, I
think that I was the, theanomaly or, you know, the kind
of a rare case where somebodythat really knew what they
(10:48):
wanted to do.
But yeah, I've always enjoyedengineering.
I've said for a lot of years Icall myself an engineering geek,
you know, I just like you knowthe understanding how things
work, trying to figure thingsout, being creative, trying to
come up with new solutions,trying to figure things out,
being creative, trying to comeup with new solutions, and so
it's been a good choice for me.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, no, obviously it's a great field, still one
that I think a lot of people arebeing encouraged to go into.
But I'm sure it was some hardwork.
When you were going through thecollege courses.
I mean, did it stuff?
I mean, what kind of studentwere you?
(11:28):
Did it come pretty easily toyou or did you have to?
Kind of?
I mean, nothing good comessuper easy.
But some people are really goodin the classroom setting.
I really struggled with it alot.
I needed a lot more interaction, did better in classes where I
it was more, you know, goingback and forth with the
instructor or whatever, but tryto sit and crank something out
(11:50):
over hours.
It was pretty tough for me.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, yeah, for me it actually the school part of it
came pretty easy.
I think I did.
I worked hard but, um, you know, honestly, I had a lot of fun.
I um, I kind of focused on, youknow, getting a lot of stuff
done during the day.
You know, if I had gaps in myschedule or whatever, I'd spend
time trying to study or dohomework or things like that, so
that I could have some time inthe evenings to go and have some
(12:15):
fun.
I got involved in a fraternityin college and you know that was
a great opportunity to get toknow some people and and and
also, like I said, have to havesome fun along the way.
But it's kind of, for me, it'salways been a, you know, work
hard and then gives you theability to play hard.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, was GMI, then a pretty big school.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
No, no, it was.
It was not and it's still not.
I'm not sure exactly what thepopulation is today, but I think
it was somewhere around whatthe population is today, but I
think it was somewhere around.
I believe it was about 2,500students total, but it was a
hundred percent co-op and so inorder to sign up for there, you
actually had to have a job, asponsor, to co-op with, and it
(12:57):
was alternating every threemonths.
So you'd go to school for threemonths and then you'd go and
you'd work at whoever yoursponsoring company was for three
months and then you'd come backto school for three months and
then you'd go and you'd work atwhoever your sponsoring company
was for three months and thenyou'd come back to school for
three months.
And you did that for afive-year program and because of
that schedule they had reallyhad two student populations, so
while one group was on campus inschool, the other group was
(13:18):
working at wherever their jobwas, and then you'd flip-flop
and the one group would comeback on campus and then the
other group would go off.
So my schedule like I was whatwas called a section and went to
school, started out July,august, september, and then I'd
work October, November, december, and then you know the winter
(13:39):
quarter.
You know January, february,march would be back at school
and so on.
And did that January, february,march would be back at school
and so on, and did that.
And so it was weird because itwas like two totally separate
student populations.
That other half you neverreally crossed paths with,
didn't get to know them at all.
So it's almost like having twodifferent schools of about 1200
student population.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
So your wife must've been on your schedule.
Yeah, she was Thus gettingtogether.
Yeah, so a house toolengineering.
You know it's a family, tillthis day a family-owned company,
and, uh, based out of richmond.
Uh, from what we talked,history of the company goes back
to the 40s and, uh, some of theinformation that, from I
(14:22):
understand, it was founded byWilliam a house Is that right?
And his son, irvin.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I mean, and his brother Irvin yeah, I think they
were both, they were brothersum in 1946.
And then you know very closely,uh after that, um, uh, lauren,
a house, um, jane William's son,uh, so he, he joined the
company and uh, hisbrother-in-law, galen Miller, um
(14:51):
, you know, came on board prettyearly as well.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And, uh, they kind of started it out like in a garage
yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Right, yep, yep, literally.
They had a home and they had asmall garage that they started
in and um and then kind of grewup from there.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I don't know I'm going to talk about a little bit
, but your your primary building, that you're in, your main
building.
That's about 74,000 square feet, Correct?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Is that correct, mm-hmm?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
But it was smarter than that at one time because
you guys added on to it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, yeah, it started, so we moved there,
moved to that building in 1979.
Okay, and then since then,we've actually had five
different additions to thatbuilding to get it up to that 70
, 74 000 square feet and this isprobably.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
It's a lot deeper than this, but um company
specializes in designing andbuilding custom automation
equipment right and work holdingfixtures, so that's kind of an
internet pool, is that?
Is that true?
Is that?
Yeah, that is, and it's it'skind of a internet pool.
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, that is, and it's kind of an
industry-specific term.
Not a lot of people understandthat.
But back in the really kind ofin the 90s and then beyond the
machining world, machining ofparts kind of changed to what's
called CNC machines, computernumerical controlled machining
(16:11):
centers.
They're basically just you know, programmable machines, but
that really took off in theindustry and so a lot of these
companies were buying these youknow standard CNC machines to
machine parts.
Whether it's for the automotiveindustry or construction
industry, medical industry,whatever it is, they're doing
high volume machining of parts.
(16:32):
And in order to do that you'dhave to design a fixture, a
workholding fixture, to holdthose parts consistently, very
rigidly and so forth, so thatwhen you'd machine the parts you
can get consistent qualityparts off of them.
So the workholding fixtures arethe fixtures that go on onto
those CNC machines.
And so we saw that it wasreally before I came to a house
(16:57):
you know kind of identified thatas a market that was going to
be growing, and so wespecifically we hired one or two
people that had some experiencein that that type of business
and tried to become a key playerin designing and building those
workholding fixtures for thecompany.
Is that still a part?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
It still is, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It varies from year to year.
Some years it'll be a higherpercentage of our business than
others, but it's probablyconsistently anywhere from 30%
of our revenue to up to maybeeven 40% or 50% of our revenue
in some years.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And you've got precision meeting, uh, precision
machining services, right,right and heat exchange
manufacturing solutions yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So the precision machining that kind of comes
back to our roots.
You know the company startedout as a tool and die shop that
was basically just machiningparts for other businesses in
the area and so we've alwaysbeen a machining.
You had that machiningcapability and as we later added
(17:57):
an engineering part of ourengineering department and we
started building some of thoseautomation machines and
workholding fixtures, we stillhave maintained that machining
capability and so for differentcustomers we'll do some.
Usually they're small to mediumvolume production runs of
machined parts.
You know it's not, it's more inthe hundreds, you know tens or
(18:20):
hundreds of parts as opposed tothousands or 10,000s of parts.
So we've maintained thatcapability.
And then the heat exchanger issomething that built up over
probably really the 80s and 90s,kind of resulted from what
ended up being Vistion over inConnersville, indiana.
(18:42):
Previous to that it was a Fordplant but they manufactured heat
exchangers and compressors andall that for the automotive
market.
So radiators, heater cores,evaporator cores, condensers,
because of that relationshipthat really kind of got us into
the engineering side.
When they were making the movefrom radiators that were at the
(19:07):
time made primarily of copperand brass they went to all
aluminum radiators and in doingthat they put plastic tanks on
the ends of those radiators andthe tanks are held on by tabs
which are kind of crimped over.
They actually approached us tosee if we'd be interested in
trying to design a machine tofold those tabs over to attach
(19:29):
the tank to the aluminumradiator.
That got us into just all sortsof heat exchangers,
understanding them and buildinga variety of different machines
and systems to help assemble andbuild those heat exchangers.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, very cool.
So the industries that you'reinvolved in obviously,
automotive is one, medical, um,power generation, yeah, and uh,
even defense, yeah, some, somedefense, some defense.
Is that a is?
Is that a?
(20:03):
Is that kind of ebb and flowbased upon where the certain
administration's priority?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
is in defense.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I mean, or do you even notice that you?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
know one of the things that we we used to be
very heavy into automotive andyou know, at one point it was
probably 60, 70, maybe even alittle bit higher percent of our
business and we've kind ofintentionally tried to diversify
ourselves.
And we've kind of intentionallytried to diversify ourselves.
You know that the automotiveindustry is sometimes
(20:35):
challenging to work with.
There are lots of pressure,schedules are very tight, cost
pressures are big, and so it'salways a challenge trying to do
that work and do it successfullyand profitably.
But there's also a lot ofopportunities in the automotive
because there's always thingsgoing on, new products coming
(20:56):
out, but so back shoot, it'sbeen 20 years ago.
We're trying to say, hey, wereally need to diversify more,
and so we started looking atwhat industries are, you know,
growing and developing, whichones could we have good
relationships?
For us we see customers.
One of the key things is goodcustomers are ones that we can
(21:18):
develop a good long-termpartnership with.
We're not out there looking totry and win those opportunities
where it's going to be going towhoever bids the lowest amount.
We want to have a good qualityproduct and we want to have good
relationships.
So customers come back to ustime and time again.
So automotive has reallydropped off.
(21:39):
I think we're probably maybeonly 15% automotive now.
The construction industry,companies like Caterpillar, um
uh.
Cummins, uh, you know big trucktype stuff, um, those those
have kicked up recently.
Um uh, we have a good customerbeen a good customer for more
(21:59):
than 40 years that makes aplastic drainage pipe, uh, and
they've got plants all over theUnited States and so we do a lot
of work with that company.
Um Medical you mentioned.
We've done a lot of automationequipment for surgical devices
as well as a lot of machiningand workholding fixtures for
orthopedic Zimmer, which is upin Warsaw, northern Indiana,
(22:23):
where they make a lot ofartificial knee joints, hip
joints, all that sort of thing.
We've done a lot of product forthat.
We've done a lot of product forthat.
So another industry that's beenfairly busy recently is the
over-the-road truck, you knowbig semi-trailer truck industry
where they're trying to do morewith their operations, to
automate their operations andget more efficient.
(22:44):
So we're pretty diverse.
As you look at it, we're spreadto a lot of industries and I
think that's good, because thoseindustries will ebb and flow.
Sometimes they'll be very busyand then things will kind of
slow down for a few years, andso we have to continually be
looking at what's next and whatindustries are potentially
growing.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I really appreciate your comment about working with
companies trying to develop arelationship manpower.
It's really great.
I love some of the companiesthat we've had the opportunity
just to work with for for manyyears and it's it's it's very
enjoyable because you kind ofyou feel like, even though we're
a separate service company withthem, I mean it feels like
(23:27):
you're a part of their companyand you, and it's fun to see how
they're growing and peoplesucceed.
And I was just talking this Iran into this young man at the
boys and girls club golf outingand, uh, he was just at the
driving range and I was talkingto him and uh, come to find out
that he had started at at thiscompany through manpower and now
(23:51):
he was the production managerthere.
Yeah and uh.
So I love meeting people likethat or or people that have
stories later on, uh, and seehow they've grown with the
company and maintaining a longrelationship with when we can
with companies.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
That's that's the really fun part about it, as you
see those people and howthey've grown and just success
stories and that you know itkind of comes back to gives you
that sense of purpose right asyou see those people and how
they've grown and just successstories, and that, you know, it
kind of comes back to, gives youthat sense of purpose right as
you're running a business andowning a business is, you know,
yeah, you're doing things youknow every day because of what
the business is and all that.
But you know, when you startlooking at the bigger purpose
(24:26):
and you see the like in yourcase, the idea of providing
opportunities for people to kindof start out in their career
and then hopefully see them growand build into something else,
it's pretty satisfying andthat's one of the things that we
see too that we actually KevinA-House and Rick A-House and
myself sat down about seven oreight years ago and really tried
(24:48):
to define the purpose Right.
What is the purpose of A-House?
And obviously we're amanufacturing company.
We design and build custommanufacturing equipment.
But as we looked back at thehistory of the company, we kind
of got into stories about thingsthat really stuck out to us.
We looked at what things havewe been involved in outside of
(25:08):
the business and the communityand where we really came and
settled is that, you know thepurpose is really to provide,
you know, opportunities forpeople to do new and better
things, new possibilities forpeople, and that's, you know,
the people that we work with.
Maybe it's a young personcoming right out of high school
into the apprenticeship programand then building a career from
(25:30):
there, but also it's ourcustomers, working with them to
kind of see new possibilitiesand reach new possibilities that
they might not have otherwiseseen.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Well, it's a good lead-in to the question I had,
or something I wanted you tocomment maybe a little bit more,
because even in the late 70s, Ibelieve your apprenticeship
program, which is nationallyaccredited education program for
tool makers and cnc machinists,I believe, and correct me if I
got any of this wrong but youwant to hire several individuals
(26:03):
each year specifically trainthese professions and you work
with purdue university collegeof technology and ivy tech.
You still partner with both ofthose, Correct, yeah?
And so tell us maybe a littlebit more about the
apprenticeship program.
I mean, you're bringing peopleup in the field and a lot of
these people, I suspect, arestill working for you today.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's really cool looking back at it.
It was obviously before I cameto A-House, but Rick A-House and
Lauren A-House at the time werelooking at the machine tool
needs here in the community andtrying to hire people and they
said, hey, we need to starttraining young people because
(26:48):
there just aren't people outthere that have these skills,
because there just aren't peopleout there that have these
skills.
And so there was a group ofother tool-and-die companies in
the area that got together andwere talking and said, hey, we
need to do this.
And a lot of them said, no,it's too expensive, we're not
going to invest our time andresources into training these
people.
And so there were only a coupleof companies that ended up
(27:08):
doing it and kind of stickingwith it ourselves.
And one of the other onesthat's done it for a long, a lot
of years is Nixon tool here inRichmond.
But it's been super successfulfor us because it gets those
young people into the door andwe we start.
You know, when they start as anapprentice, they they work full
(27:28):
time for us.
We pay them a really competitivewage, but we're also training
them.
They're moving around different,different operations within the
company to try and learn thetrade and then they also are
required to take classes, likeyou said, either through Ivy
Tech, community College or thePurdue program.
Some of them go and take somethings at IU East but over a
(27:52):
period of about four yearssometimes it's a little bit less
or sometimes a little bit morethey will get I think it's about
8,000 hours of hands-ontraining as well as get enough
education.
So they end up getting anassociate's degree in whether it
could be an engineeringtechnology program or a machine
tool technology programtechnology program or a machine
(28:16):
tool technology program.
And that, you know, that's justbeen really successful because
those folks have, you know,continue to be really good
employees and a lot of them havemoved up into different
positions, whether it's been asupervisor position, a manager
of a department.
Some of them have moved intoengineering.
They've gone on and gottentheir engineering degree and
moved into engineering, projectmanagement, just all sorts of
(28:36):
just some of them into sales,and it's really provided a
really good resource for us tokind of help grow as a company,
because we're providingopportunities for these young
people.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Any idea of how many have gone through this program?
I?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
should have looked at that.
Any idea of how many have gonethrough this program?
I should have looked at that.
I think it's in the 60s, maybeit's probably even more than
that that have like started intothe program.
But I think we have 50 to 60graduates and a lot of those
people are still with us todaySome have actually.
We just recently had some ofour first retirements that
started out back in the late 70sor early 80s, worked their
(29:13):
entire career with us and thenhave since just retired from
A-House.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
I mean you're not a huge company.
I think you're maybe a littleunder 100 employees, a little
over 100.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Now, I think we just looked at it, we're about 107.
We've hired quite a few in thelast two years because of lots
of growth.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
But when you're running, let's say, 100 people I
mean there's only so manypeople you can have in an
apprenticeship program at onetime.
Yeah, I mean, what's kind ofthe max?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Right now I think we have I just looked at it I think
we have nine in ourapprenticeship program right now
.
We try to do maybe two to threeevery year starting out because
it takes, like I said, aboutfour years to get through that.
But we have kind of expanded itso it's not just machining and
tool making.
We also have apprentices gothrough as an electrician to get
(30:03):
their electrician certification.
We have one apprentice inengineering our mechanical
design engineering departmentright now.
That has started out andhopefully that'll be a really
good fit.
We actually had a young lady gothrough in our accounting
department.
She was starting into heraccounting degree and we hired
her in the accounting departmentand made her an apprentice and
(30:26):
so we went through a veryspecific kind of created a
program for on the job trainingas well as her education.
And she's still with us todayand has really grown and stepped
up and now is kind of managingthe, the accounting group.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
You recently expanded into a building across the
street from your 200 industrialparkway site.
I was out of town for your openhouse, but I did get to see
some great pictures.
Just tell us a little bit aboutthat building and how you're
using it, integrating it withyour other one.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, we well, like I mentioned, we've had a lot of
growth over the last couple ofyears and especially what we
needed was assembly floor space,because some of these
automation systems will take upa lot of floor space.
They may be 20 feet wide by 40feet long for this full system
and when you're going trying tobuild that system up in your
(31:20):
facility, make sure that it'srunning and working.
We invite customers in to runoff the equipment before we ship
it to their facilities.
We just were running short onfloor space.
We were actually looking thatwe we may have to may have had
to lease some space locally tofind some extra manufacturing
space for a short term.
(31:41):
But yeah, the building rightacross the street became
available.
It's about somewhere close toabout 25,000 square feet, so
with the two buildings combinednow it's about 100,000 square
feet.
So with the two buildingscombined now it's about 100,000
square feet, and there's also ahandful of offices over there.
So we did take advantage ofthat and our accounting team has
actually moved over there,which frees up some space in our
(32:03):
place, but, more importantly,it gives us a really big space
for assembling of some largesystems over there.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, I've been in that building over the years
multiple times.
In my recollection overall it'sa pretty solid building.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah, and I think it was in probably decent shape.
Yeah, it's a really good find.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
You know one, the location being right across
street is very convenient.
But yeah, it's a good goodspace.
It's building seems to be heldup really well.
Good space.
This building seems to be heldup really well.
We did just some real basiccleanup and kind of painted the
overall manufacturing space justto kind of give it a fresher
look and feel.
But we had to do very little tobasically get it ready to move
(32:44):
in, and so we've already got abunch of projects over there
that we're using for assemblyspace.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
So how many people are over there in that building
for?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
assembly space.
So how many people are overthere in that building it will
vary depending on project, butright now in the office there's
generally about four people,four or five people, and then in
the manufacturing area there'sgoing to be six to eight at any
one time and as projects willfinish and complete those folks
will probably then move backover to our main building and
then we may have some differentones go over there to work on
(33:15):
some projects.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
evan flow yeah, well that's, that's great.
I'm glad you you know you'reutilizing that building.
It's not sitting there vacant,shifting gears.
Just a little bit giving backto community with your time,
talent and treasure has beenvery important for.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
A-House as a company.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
With Rick, kevin and you serving the community in
several organizations andcapacities and I mentioned
earlier that we serve togetheron the Boys and Girls Club of
Wayne County's Board ofDirectors and my apologies, but
I really want to share thisbecause I think it is kind of a
(33:56):
big deal, because you're apretty humble guy, but you
joined the board back in 06, andyou were board president in 16
and 17, which many people don'tknow.
If you get into the leadershippart of the of, like Jeff was
president, that's really aneight year commitment.
(34:17):
Yeah, yeah, cause you're secondvice president, vice president,
president and then a pastpresident.
So those are two year terms.
So that's, that's, that's a bigdeal.
Eight years, um, your boardmember of the year in no, nine?
Uh, you're a board member ofthe year in 09,.
A house tool in engineeringreceived the Earl and Catherine
mayor award in 2020.
You received the Bob Rosapresence award in 21 and the
(34:42):
champion of youth in 23.
And you've served on multiplecommittees with the club.
I mean, tell us why it's beenimportant for you to serve the
community in this way.
I know you, you believe it ornot, folks, I mean tell us why
it's been important for you toserve the community in this way.
I know you.
You believe it or not, folks, Imean, he served in other ways
to other organizations, but justwhy is that important to you
(35:04):
and why do you think it would beimportant for the people to
consider the same?
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah, I think it's one of the things I I didn't
necessarily plan for or expectwhen we moved to Richmond.
You know I knew that.
You know some of Rick A House'shistory is, you know, served on
city council, school board,those sorts of things.
Even his, his dad, lauren AHouse, he was a school board
(35:30):
member at one point in time andso I knew that they were
involved.
But, uh, after coming here tothe community, um, really, I
think with the size of uh,richmond, it really allows for
for you to get involved in a lotof different things if, if you
want to and and make an impact,Um, and I think that that's what
kind of got me involved was,you know I want to make an
(35:51):
impact.
You know I think that thisRichmond community has a lot of
potential and you know there's alot of things that you know
used to be here, if you go allthe way back into the early
1900s.
Just a lot of, you know, just areally thriving, booming town.
And you know I see trying, youknow my personal efforts is how
can I help, you know, to improvesome things, how do I help get
(36:14):
some things back there?
And, in particular, I've alwaysenjoyed working with kids and
youth and getting into the Boysand Girls Club just seemed to be
like a natural thing for me.
Um, uh, galen Miller, who was apast president at a house tool,
was involved at the boys andgirls club and uh, shortly after
I came to Richmond, uh, he kindof pulled me aside and said,
(36:36):
hey, I think I, I think you'd begreat to be on the board there
and kind of plug me in.
Um, but yeah, it's, it's uhsuper, uh fulfilling to be able
to be part of an organizationthat is really trying to reach
those, those kids A lot of them,you know, are ones that really
need help.
You know a lot they need to.
Um, you know, it's kind of astable uh organization in in
(36:57):
their lives and uh, so it wasjust a natural for me to get
involved and try and do whateverI could to to make it better,
you know, to help out.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
So at least you don't get upset if I get to get it
wrong.
But I think you know we've theclub every day.
There's five to 600 kids everyday, you know, at one of our
local clubs.
Yeah, just one of the units,right?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
So that's, um, it's a big impact and, uh, they've
been very fortunate to have youas a part of it.
Um, so fortunate to have you asa part of it.
So you and I are not, I wouldsay, real old yet yeah, thank
you.
Thank you for saying that.
I think it's fair to say thatthe next year is based on where
(37:40):
we're at in age we're just twoyears apart Could involve some
big changes for each of us.
And so for you, I mean, whatdoes it look like for you in the
next five to 10 years?
I mean it's you've had a familybusiness I don't think there's
another family member currentlyinvolved in in a house, so
what's things look like like foryou personally?
(38:00):
You see moving forward in thecompany and maybe even a house
in general.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, it's a good question, I feel like.
So Rick A-House was, you know,president of the company when I
came on board in 97.
And he was, I think, prettyinstrumental in trying to do
some things with successionplanning of the business, with
ownership, and you know back inthose days that actually the
ownership had gotten spread outquite a bit.
(38:28):
There's been stocks gifted tocertain members of a family and
he was pretty instrumental inkind of bringing that ownership
back to just a small, smallnumber of people.
And then also he's been, as heis retired, back in the early
two thousands and Kevin Hayhouseand I have taken over, excuse
me, running the and managing thebusiness.
(38:49):
He's been very good about kindof pushing succession planning,
good about, you know,transitioning of ownership, and
so Kevin and I have been able to, you know, through some gifting
and as well as acquiring stock,been able to get to the point
where, you know, the two of usare the two co-owners of the
business.
We have equal ownership.
Rick still has a few, you knowa.
Two of us are the two co-ownersof the business.
(39:10):
We have equal ownership.
Rick still has a few, you know,a small percentage of ownership
as well, but you know, inrecent years it's been okay.
What's next, right?
How do we succession plan, asKevin and I are, you know,
potentially looking atretirement or stepping into
something next.
What's that look like?
And so, yeah, we've been verystrong into thinking about it.
(39:31):
We currently don't have anynext generation family members
in the business and so we'vereally tried to make sure that
we are building up ourmanagement team, you know,
making sure we've got reallygood, strong people there.
And probably sometime in thenext you know could be anywhere
from a few years to.
You know, kevin and I bothprobably will step out into some
(39:52):
sort of retirement, partialretirement and we just want to
make sure that we've got areally good, strong management
team there to run the business.
And there may be a nextgeneration family member that
comes in at some point, butwe're not sure.
But our plan right now is tocontinue to own the business,
even when we're not running thebusiness and managing the
(40:12):
business, and we think thatthat's still real key is to have
that local ownership.
Um, you know, we've just seentoo many examples of of
companies that, um, you know,have sold to third parties, sold
to private equity, and then thebusiness ends up getting run in
the ground and so um, our, soour goal is to continue to own
the business while we are nolonger working there at some
(40:34):
point.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Well, it looks like you all have handled the
dynamics of family workingtogether very well.
I mean, I think you guys arelike fourth generation in your
company and I'm third generationin ours and I've worked with my
dad, my aunt, my sister, myself, my wife, and we've been
(40:59):
fortunate to be able to have thedynamics where we can work well
together.
I mean, any business has itschallenges and I'm sure that you
guys have had yours now andthen.
But when I look from theoutside, looking in, it looks
like you all do a great job ofworking well together and
everyone kind of has their spaceand what they're doing and it
(41:21):
seems like it works well.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah, it's one of the things when I was deciding
whether I should come toRichmond and I should come to
work at A-House one of the keys.
You know, I didn't, I didn'tknow a lot about the business,
um, I didn't have a uhexperience in machining or tool
making or uh that sort of thing,um.
But the thing that I did knowbecause I had married into the
family is I knew the quality ofthe people that were running the
(41:45):
business.
I knew Rick, I knew Kevin, andso I didn't have any question at
all in terms of stepping into acompany, you know, in terms of
how the business was run, theculture, the ethics, the morals,
all that sort of thing, allvery strong and I think those
things of what's helped us towork well together, that we
respect each other.
And you know, kevin and I havekind of run the business as
(42:09):
partners for the last, you know,almost 20 years, and I think
that's we have a real openrelationship and we've over the
years we kind of dividedresponsibility so that we're not
stepping on each other's toesand kind of get in areas where
we each have strengths, andthat's it's worked well for a
long time.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Well, you had time, well, you had the, you had the,
um, the privilege of you knowthe time you were married before
you came back to richmond, uhto uh, you know they could
audition for your services andit seems like it worked out
pretty well so uh, great,anything as we kind of wrap it
up here, anything else you thinkthat we should talk about as
(42:49):
far as a house and what's goingon, and we've covered the gamut
pretty much.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
No, I just think you know, like you said, it's been a
really good fit for me to comehere and you know it's pretty
unusual to have a kind of likean in-law in the business but
very thankful that it worked outwell and it's great to be able
to be part of a small businesswhere you can make a positive
impact and part of a communitywhere you can make an impact.
(43:13):
And I think that's somethingthat we need to kind of push and
encourage other people in thecommunity is to say, hey, this
community is not going to getbetter on its own.
It needs strong leaders, strongpeople to go out there and get
involved in nonprofits, getinvolved in businesses and help
them be successful so that wecan kind of grow this, this town
in this area, to back where itpossibly used to be right.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, no, I think that, um, there's been occasions
uh maybe multiple in somepeople's opinion where we've, uh
communities kind of beenknocked down, but it seems like
we're pretty resilient, we keepon getting up and brushing off
our pants and, yeah, going at it, and I think there's kind of
that kind of a vibe in thecommunity right now where
(43:57):
there's a lot of good thingsgoing on, a lot of uh people
that are trying to make thiscommunity a better place, and we
just need to to have just morepositive thoughts within the
community in general and, uh,take advantage of some of the
things that we have moving ourdirection right now, so yeah,
absolutely so.
Uh, um, if any of our followersor followers are interested in
(44:18):
more information about a house,it's easy A housecom.
They got a lot of stuff onthere and lots of ways to learn
about their company.
So, thank you, jeff happening.
So, thank you, jeff, appreciateit yeah it's been great.
That's all for this episode ofthe hub.
Thanks again for listening andwe'll see you next time for
another conversation with adifference maker from our region
.
Manpower is proud to supportthe hub.
(44:38):
Find out how they can supportyour business at MP Richmondcom.
Welcome to the Hub Podcast recorded right here in
Richmond, indiana.
I'm your host, michael Allen,and on the Hub, our mission is
to share stories of peoplemaking a difference in our
region.
In addition to hosting thepodcast, I work with a wonderful
team of staffing professionalsat Manpower.
Manpower is helping companiesall over East Central Indiana
find staffing so they cancontinue to grow and thrive.
(00:24):
Find out how we can help yourcompany at mprichmondcom.
With us today on this episodeof the Hub is Jeff Sheridan,
owner vice president of A HouseTool and Engineering located
here in Richmond, indiana.
Jeff, welcome to the Hub, thankyou, good to be here.
Hey, we go back a lot of years,jeff, and back when our boys
(00:44):
started playing T-ball.
That was almost 25 years ago.
You and I were talking theother day I think that's a
pretty good number and from thenwe've crossed paths, golfing
and business, serving togetheron the board of directors of the
Boys and Girls Club, and I canjust tell you it's been a real
pleasure for me to get to knowyou all these years and I'm
(01:06):
really grateful that you agreedto come on to the hub today.
So thank you for doing that.
Yeah, thanks, mike.
I'd like to start with our hubtradition, this is always like
to hear people's answers to this.
And, going back, what was yourvery first job?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Jack, what was your very first job?
Well, my very first paying job.
I was actually very muchpart-time lifeguard at the local
high school pool where I grewup.
That was before I was oldenough to get a real job and all
that.
And then I'd say my first kindof real job was flipping burgers
at McDonald's in high schoolDid that for a while and that's
(01:49):
a job.
I think that builds character.
I've always said that you knowpretty much everybody ought to
get a job in some sort of foodindustries.
Absolutely Helps you appreciatepotentially not being in that
industry.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Right, well, I did a similar, had a similar job, uh,
flipping burgers at anotherplace called burger chef.
I don't know if you rememberthat and uh, but uh, you know, I
think part of it, that age waspart of it was kind of fun and
but it's just uh, but uh, it's akind of an entryway for a lot
(02:22):
of young adults or teenagersjust to kind of get the taste
for what it means to worksomewhere, and so yeah, so the
lifeguard was this indoor pool.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, I was in the indoor pool, I was.
I was on the swim team in highschool and you know they had
open swims once or twice a weekor something like that, and uh,
so I just lifeguarded there andearned, know, earned a few
dollars, uh, uh, while I was.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
That was probably when I was like 14, 15 years old
yeah, I think that's a verycommon uh occupation for kids
that are on swim teams orwhatever they do the
lifeguarding at the, at the gymsor country clubs or whatever
right.
One thing I'd like to ask youis if you just kind of share
with our followers aboutyourself, kind of where you grew
(03:07):
up, your family, education,kids, career, all that kind of
stuff.
Sure, that's a lot of stuff.
Yeah, it's a lot, we'll workthrough it.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I'll jump in.
So yeah, I grew up in southeastMichigan, just north of Flint
Michigan, a small little bedroomcommunity north of Flint
Michigan, in a small littlebedroom community.
My dad was a teacher in theneighboring school district not
the school district where I went.
My mom ended up gettinginvolved as a business
administrator at a differentschool district.
(03:35):
So lots of education in ourbackgrounds and our family.
But I grew up there and it's ahuge automotive area of the
country obviously and GeneralMotors had a huge presence in
the Flint area.
You know there's probably justabout everybody I knew had some
sort of family member thatworked either for GM or for one
(03:57):
of the supporting companies andyou know that kind of got me
involved in thinking aboutmanufacturing and engineering.
I had a chance between myjunior and senior year in high
school to be a summer co-op atAC Sparkplug where they
literally make sparkplugs, andthat was a really good
(04:19):
opportunity for me to kind ofunderstand manufacturing.
So I grew up in that area, hadan older brother and an older
sister and ended up going towhat's now Kettering University
in Flint Michigan it used to beGMI, it was actually owned by
General Motors as a engineeringand in management educational
(04:41):
school, got my degree inelectrical engineering there and
co-opt with GM you know allthrough college and then ended
up staying in that area, workedfor the Buick Motor Division,
which then became the largeluxury car division of GM.
That's also where I met my wifeTricia.
(05:02):
That's also where I met my wifeTricia Tricia's, from Richmond,
and grew up here, but then shealso went to GMI at the time and
so we met there and ended upgetting married and lived in
Fenton, michigan, just north ofAnn Arbor, still working for GM.
I was fortunate enough that GMpaid for my graduate degree.
(05:26):
I went out to StanfordUniversity and got a degree in
manufacturing systemsengineering and came back and
continued to work for GM forseveral years and then kind of
saw that working for that largeautomotive company just a huge
company, was not something thatI wanted to do long term and so
(05:49):
I had started looking around fordifferent jobs and at the time,
obviously Trish is from thistown and I knew about A-House
Tool and Engineering from herfamily and knowing Rick A-House
and Kevin A-House from herfamily and knowing Rick A House
and Kevin A House, and at thetime, you know, trisha's mom had
(06:09):
been diagnosed with breastcancer and so a lot of reasons,
you know.
As I was looking for jobs, Iended up talking to Rick and
Kevin about the possibility ofcoming to Richmond and to work
at A House, and it was a goodfit at the time and so we moved
down here and that way we couldbe close to to her family and a
new, totally differentopportunity for me to work for a
(06:30):
small business, but still onethat's strong in manufacturing.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
What year was that?
Speaker 2 (06:36):
We moved, made the move here in 1997.
Okay, 97.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yep, so I'll back up some kind of obscure question.
But back when you were doingthe working at gm, what was kind
of the hot car back, did youremember?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
what was kind of yeah , I think probably one of the
big ones was the, the buick graynational.
Do you remember that car?
I don't know if I did.
Grand nat, grand national is akind of a hyped up.
Uh, it was all.
They all came in, just black,all blacked out.
Uh, they had a turbocharged v6engine in it.
Um, you know, it's still got apretty good cult following today
(07:13):
.
Okay, yeah, so the grand nash.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
I just don't, yeah, picking up that name so what was
the big luxury car?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
you said you were working a luxury luxury car, uh,
probably the uh, that was thecadillac, the big one, the
cadillac deville at the time.
You know, I remember those umworked on a lot of those, worked
on the ultimobile products anduh, one of the things I had to
do or got an opportunity to dowas to a new car development
program, kind of worked on itfrom the very early stages, did
(07:41):
a lot of prototype development.
But it was the, the BuickRiviera, big two-seater, or not
two-seater but two-door coupe,but it was a luxury coupe.
And then the Oldsmobileequivalent of that was I can't
remember the name of it, but itwas a four-door, had a big 4.0
liter V8 engine in it.
(08:03):
I did a lot of development onthose, those two vehicles, uh,
fairly early in my career Ithink my, my grandmother, uh,
had a buick riviera.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It was like a full-size car but it's only two
doors.
Yeah, absolutely yeah it was.
It was kind of a cool car, Iremember.
I mean hers was like a white,big two-door but yeah, that's
cool.
I just I think those things arekind of interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I mean, things have changed dramatically since those
days and uh auto with cars andtheir production today and yeah,
and I think you know one of thethings I I think I mentioned to
you when we were talking theother day is during that time I
was doing a lot of heating andcooling system development on
those vehicles and um with thatI did a lot of travel, testing
(08:46):
the cars and different weatherconditions, but we tended to
want to look for really hotweather and really cold weather.
So in the summer times I spenta lot of time in the Phoenix
area and in South Texas, kind ofalong the coast of Texas area,
to get really hot, humid weather, and in the winter times we
would go to Northern Michigan,to Northern Minnesota and up
(09:07):
into Canada trying to, you know,find really cold weather to
test the vehicles.
And I always said I'm goingexactly opposite the way I
should be going right For sure.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
It's interesting you mentioned that about.
I know you know Roger Golden.
He was on the hub early on whenwe started this and one of his
jobs was in automotive relatedand it was like he was one of
those people that would take thecalls of people who were upset
about their car.
I had some problem with it, sohe didn't stay in that super
(09:39):
long.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
That's a good character building job too.
Yeah, that's another one.
Yeah, that's a good characterbuilding job.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, that's another one.
Yeah, so when you were in likeyour junior senior year, you got
into the program that kind ofled you.
I mean, were you feeling prettyconfident about what you wanted
to do as a career back as ajunior and senior?
Because not every person knowsthat.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, no, for some reason, reason I, you know,
pretty much most of the waythrough high school I just I
felt like I wanted to get anengine into engineering, which
is a little bit odd becausenobody really in my family was
into engineering.
Um, but uh, I was, you know,really liked the math and
science type of things and, um,you know, some of the computer
programming that I did, and so Ithink that that and the
(10:26):
exposure through doing a summerco-op really kind of got me
hooked on it.
And I've said that to a lot ofpeople, that you know a lot of
young people coming out of highschool these days they don't
know what they want to do, right, and and I think that's OK, I
think that I was the, theanomaly or, you know, the kind
of a rare case where somebodythat really knew what they
(10:48):
wanted to do.
But yeah, I've always enjoyedengineering.
I've said for a lot of years Icall myself an engineering geek,
you know, I just like you knowthe understanding how things
work, trying to figure thingsout, being creative, trying to
come up with new solutions,trying to figure things out,
being creative, trying to comeup with new solutions, and so
it's been a good choice for me.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, no, obviously it's a great field, still one
that I think a lot of people arebeing encouraged to go into.
But I'm sure it was some hardwork.
When you were going through thecollege courses.
I mean, did it stuff?
I mean, what kind of studentwere you?
(11:28):
Did it come pretty easily toyou or did you have to?
Kind of?
I mean, nothing good comessuper easy.
But some people are really goodin the classroom setting.
I really struggled with it alot.
I needed a lot more interaction, did better in classes where I
it was more, you know, goingback and forth with the
instructor or whatever, but tryto sit and crank something out
(11:50):
over hours.
It was pretty tough for me.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, yeah, for me it actually the school part of it
came pretty easy.
I think I did.
I worked hard but, um, you know, honestly, I had a lot of fun.
I um, I kind of focused on, youknow, getting a lot of stuff
done during the day.
You know, if I had gaps in myschedule or whatever, I'd spend
time trying to study or dohomework or things like that, so
that I could have some time inthe evenings to go and have some
(12:15):
fun.
I got involved in a fraternityin college and you know that was
a great opportunity to get toknow some people and and and
also, like I said, have to havesome fun along the way.
But it's kind of, for me, it'salways been a, you know, work
hard and then gives you theability to play hard.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, was GMI, then a pretty big school.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
No, no, it was.
It was not and it's still not.
I'm not sure exactly what thepopulation is today, but I think
it was somewhere around whatthe population is today, but I
think it was somewhere around.
I believe it was about 2,500students total, but it was a
hundred percent co-op and so inorder to sign up for there, you
actually had to have a job, asponsor, to co-op with, and it
(12:57):
was alternating every threemonths.
So you'd go to school for threemonths and then you'd go and
you'd work at whoever yoursponsoring company was for three
months and then you'd come backto school for three months and
then you'd go and you'd work atwhoever your sponsoring company
was for three months and thenyou'd come back to school for
three months.
And you did that for afive-year program and because of
that schedule they had reallyhad two student populations, so
while one group was on campus inschool, the other group was
(13:18):
working at wherever their jobwas, and then you'd flip-flop
and the one group would comeback on campus and then the
other group would go off.
So my schedule like I was whatwas called a section and went to
school, started out July,august, september, and then I'd
work October, November, december, and then you know the winter
(13:39):
quarter.
You know January, february,march would be back at school
and so on.
And did that January, february,march would be back at school
and so on, and did that.
And so it was weird because itwas like two totally separate
student populations.
That other half you neverreally crossed paths with,
didn't get to know them at all.
So it's almost like having twodifferent schools of about 1200
student population.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
So your wife must've been on your schedule.
Yeah, she was Thus gettingtogether.
Yeah, so a house toolengineering.
You know it's a family, tillthis day a family-owned company,
and, uh, based out of richmond.
Uh, from what we talked,history of the company goes back
to the 40s and, uh, some of theinformation that, from I
(14:22):
understand, it was founded byWilliam a house Is that right?
And his son, irvin.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
I mean, and his brother Irvin yeah, I think they
were both, they were brothersum in 1946.
And then you know very closely,uh after that, um, uh, lauren,
a house, um, jane William's son,uh, so he, he joined the
company and uh, hisbrother-in-law, galen Miller, um
(14:51):
, you know, came on board prettyearly as well.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And, uh, they kind of started it out like in a garage
yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Right, yep, yep, literally.
They had a home and they had asmall garage that they started
in and um and then kind of grewup from there.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I don't know I'm going to talk about a little bit
, but your your primary building, that you're in, your main
building.
That's about 74,000 square feet, Correct?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Is that correct, mm-hmm?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
But it was smarter than that at one time because
you guys added on to it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, yeah, it started, so we moved there,
moved to that building in 1979.
Okay, and then since then,we've actually had five
different additions to thatbuilding to get it up to that 70
, 74 000 square feet and this isprobably.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
It's a lot deeper than this, but um company
specializes in designing andbuilding custom automation
equipment right and work holdingfixtures, so that's kind of an
internet pool, is that?
Is that true?
Is that?
Yeah, that is, and it's it'skind of a internet pool.
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, that is, and it's kind of an
industry-specific term.
Not a lot of people understandthat.
But back in the really kind ofin the 90s and then beyond the
machining world, machining ofparts kind of changed to what's
called CNC machines, computernumerical controlled machining
(16:11):
centers.
They're basically just you know, programmable machines, but
that really took off in theindustry and so a lot of these
companies were buying these youknow standard CNC machines to
machine parts.
Whether it's for the automotiveindustry or construction
industry, medical industry,whatever it is, they're doing
high volume machining of parts.
(16:32):
And in order to do that you'dhave to design a fixture, a
workholding fixture, to holdthose parts consistently, very
rigidly and so forth, so thatwhen you'd machine the parts you
can get consistent qualityparts off of them.
So the workholding fixtures arethe fixtures that go on onto
those CNC machines.
And so we saw that it wasreally before I came to a house
(16:57):
you know kind of identified thatas a market that was going to
be growing, and so wespecifically we hired one or two
people that had some experiencein that that type of business
and tried to become a key playerin designing and building those
workholding fixtures for thecompany.
Is that still a part?
Speaker 1 (17:11):
It still is, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
It varies from year to year.
Some years it'll be a higherpercentage of our business than
others, but it's probablyconsistently anywhere from 30%
of our revenue to up to maybeeven 40% or 50% of our revenue
in some years.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And you've got precision meeting, uh, precision
machining services, right,right and heat exchange
manufacturing solutions yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So the precision machining that kind of comes
back to our roots.
You know the company startedout as a tool and die shop that
was basically just machiningparts for other businesses in
the area and so we've alwaysbeen a machining.
You had that machiningcapability and as we later added
(17:57):
an engineering part of ourengineering department and we
started building some of thoseautomation machines and
workholding fixtures, we stillhave maintained that machining
capability and so for differentcustomers we'll do some.
Usually they're small to mediumvolume production runs of
machined parts.
You know it's not, it's more inthe hundreds, you know tens or
(18:20):
hundreds of parts as opposed tothousands or 10,000s of parts.
So we've maintained thatcapability.
And then the heat exchanger issomething that built up over
probably really the 80s and 90s,kind of resulted from what
ended up being Vistion over inConnersville, indiana.
(18:42):
Previous to that it was a Fordplant but they manufactured heat
exchangers and compressors andall that for the automotive
market.
So radiators, heater cores,evaporator cores, condensers,
because of that relationshipthat really kind of got us into
the engineering side.
When they were making the movefrom radiators that were at the
(19:07):
time made primarily of copperand brass they went to all
aluminum radiators and in doingthat they put plastic tanks on
the ends of those radiators andthe tanks are held on by tabs
which are kind of crimped over.
They actually approached us tosee if we'd be interested in
trying to design a machine tofold those tabs over to attach
(19:29):
the tank to the aluminumradiator.
That got us into just all sortsof heat exchangers,
understanding them and buildinga variety of different machines
and systems to help assemble andbuild those heat exchangers.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, very cool.
So the industries that you'reinvolved in obviously,
automotive is one, medical, um,power generation, yeah, and uh,
even defense, yeah, some, somedefense, some defense.
Is that a is?
Is that a?
(20:03):
Is that kind of ebb and flowbased upon where the certain
administration's priority?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
is in defense.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
I mean, or do you even notice that you?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
know one of the things that we we used to be
very heavy into automotive andyou know, at one point it was
probably 60, 70, maybe even alittle bit higher percent of our
business and we've kind ofintentionally tried to diversify
ourselves.
And we've kind of intentionallytried to diversify ourselves.
You know that the automotiveindustry is sometimes
(20:35):
challenging to work with.
There are lots of pressure,schedules are very tight, cost
pressures are big, and so it'salways a challenge trying to do
that work and do it successfullyand profitably.
But there's also a lot ofopportunities in the automotive
because there's always thingsgoing on, new products coming
(20:56):
out, but so back shoot, it'sbeen 20 years ago.
We're trying to say, hey, wereally need to diversify more,
and so we started looking atwhat industries are, you know,
growing and developing, whichones could we have good
relationships?
For us we see customers.
One of the key things is goodcustomers are ones that we can
(21:18):
develop a good long-termpartnership with.
We're not out there looking totry and win those opportunities
where it's going to be going towhoever bids the lowest amount.
We want to have a good qualityproduct and we want to have good
relationships.
So customers come back to ustime and time again.
So automotive has reallydropped off.
(21:39):
I think we're probably maybeonly 15% automotive now.
The construction industry,companies like Caterpillar, um
uh.
Cummins, uh, you know big trucktype stuff, um, those those
have kicked up recently.
Um uh, we have a good customerbeen a good customer for more
(21:59):
than 40 years that makes aplastic drainage pipe, uh, and
they've got plants all over theUnited States and so we do a lot
of work with that company.
Um Medical you mentioned.
We've done a lot of automationequipment for surgical devices
as well as a lot of machiningand workholding fixtures for
orthopedic Zimmer, which is upin Warsaw, northern Indiana,
(22:23):
where they make a lot ofartificial knee joints, hip
joints, all that sort of thing.
We've done a lot of product forthat.
We've done a lot of product forthat.
So another industry that's beenfairly busy recently is the
over-the-road truck, you knowbig semi-trailer truck industry
where they're trying to do morewith their operations, to
automate their operations andget more efficient.
(22:44):
So we're pretty diverse.
As you look at it, we're spreadto a lot of industries and I
think that's good, because thoseindustries will ebb and flow.
Sometimes they'll be very busyand then things will kind of
slow down for a few years, andso we have to continually be
looking at what's next and whatindustries are potentially
growing.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I really appreciate your comment about working with
companies trying to develop arelationship manpower.
It's really great.
I love some of the companiesthat we've had the opportunity
just to work with for for manyyears and it's it's it's very
enjoyable because you kind ofyou feel like, even though we're
a separate service company withthem, I mean it feels like
(23:27):
you're a part of their companyand you, and it's fun to see how
they're growing and peoplesucceed.
And I was just talking this Iran into this young man at the
boys and girls club golf outingand, uh, he was just at the
driving range and I was talkingto him and uh, come to find out
that he had started at at thiscompany through manpower and now
(23:51):
he was the production managerthere.
Yeah and uh.
So I love meeting people likethat or or people that have
stories later on, uh, and seehow they've grown with the
company and maintaining a longrelationship with when we can
with companies.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
That's that's the really fun part about it, as you
see those people and howthey've grown and just success
stories and that you know itkind of comes back to gives you
that sense of purpose right asyou see those people and how
they've grown and just successstories, and that, you know, it
kind of comes back to, gives youthat sense of purpose right as
you're running a business andowning a business is, you know,
yeah, you're doing things youknow every day because of what
the business is and all that.
But you know, when you startlooking at the bigger purpose
(24:26):
and you see the like in yourcase, the idea of providing
opportunities for people to kindof start out in their career
and then hopefully see them growand build into something else,
it's pretty satisfying andthat's one of the things that we
see too that we actually KevinA-House and Rick A-House and
myself sat down about seven oreight years ago and really tried
(24:48):
to define the purpose Right.
What is the purpose of A-House?
And obviously we're amanufacturing company.
We design and build custommanufacturing equipment.
But as we looked back at thehistory of the company, we kind
of got into stories about thingsthat really stuck out to us.
We looked at what things havewe been involved in outside of
(25:08):
the business and the communityand where we really came and
settled is that, you know thepurpose is really to provide,
you know, opportunities forpeople to do new and better
things, new possibilities forpeople, and that's, you know,
the people that we work with.
Maybe it's a young personcoming right out of high school
into the apprenticeship programand then building a career from
(25:30):
there, but also it's ourcustomers, working with them to
kind of see new possibilitiesand reach new possibilities that
they might not have otherwiseseen.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Well, it's a good lead-in to the question I had,
or something I wanted you tocomment maybe a little bit more,
because even in the late 70s, Ibelieve your apprenticeship
program, which is nationallyaccredited education program for
tool makers and cnc machinists,I believe, and correct me if I
got any of this wrong but youwant to hire several individuals
(26:03):
each year specifically trainthese professions and you work
with purdue university collegeof technology and ivy tech.
You still partner with both ofthose, Correct, yeah?
And so tell us maybe a littlebit more about the
apprenticeship program.
I mean, you're bringing peopleup in the field and a lot of
these people, I suspect, arestill working for you today.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, yeah, it's really cool looking back at it.
It was obviously before I cameto A-House, but Rick A-House and
Lauren A-House at the time werelooking at the machine tool
needs here in the community andtrying to hire people and they
said, hey, we need to starttraining young people because
(26:48):
there just aren't people outthere that have these skills,
because there just aren't peopleout there that have these
skills.
And so there was a group ofother tool-and-die companies in
the area that got together andwere talking and said, hey, we
need to do this.
And a lot of them said, no,it's too expensive, we're not
going to invest our time andresources into training these
people.
And so there were only a coupleof companies that ended up
(27:08):
doing it and kind of stickingwith it ourselves.
And one of the other onesthat's done it for a long, a lot
of years is Nixon tool here inRichmond.
But it's been super successfulfor us because it gets those
young people into the door andwe we start.
You know, when they start as anapprentice, they they work full
(27:28):
time for us.
We pay them a really competitivewage, but we're also training
them.
They're moving around different,different operations within the
company to try and learn thetrade and then they also are
required to take classes, likeyou said, either through Ivy
Tech, community College or thePurdue program.
Some of them go and take somethings at IU East but over a
(27:52):
period of about four yearssometimes it's a little bit less
or sometimes a little bit morethey will get I think it's about
8,000 hours of hands-ontraining as well as get enough
education.
So they end up getting anassociate's degree in whether it
could be an engineeringtechnology program or a machine
tool technology programtechnology program or a machine
(28:16):
tool technology program.
And that, you know, that's justbeen really successful because
those folks have, you know,continue to be really good
employees and a lot of them havemoved up into different
positions, whether it's been asupervisor position, a manager
of a department.
Some of them have moved intoengineering.
They've gone on and gottentheir engineering degree and
moved into engineering, projectmanagement, just all sorts of
(28:36):
just some of them into sales,and it's really provided a
really good resource for us tokind of help grow as a company,
because we're providingopportunities for these young
people.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Any idea of how many have gone through this program?
I?
Speaker 2 (28:51):
should have looked at that.
Any idea of how many have gonethrough this program?
I should have looked at that.
I think it's in the 60s, maybeit's probably even more than
that that have like started intothe program.
But I think we have 50 to 60graduates and a lot of those
people are still with us todaySome have actually.
We just recently had some ofour first retirements that
started out back in the late 70sor early 80s, worked their
(29:13):
entire career with us and thenhave since just retired from
A-House.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
I mean you're not a huge company.
I think you're maybe a littleunder 100 employees, a little
over 100.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Now, I think we just looked at it, we're about 107.
We've hired quite a few in thelast two years because of lots
of growth.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
But when you're running, let's say, 100 people I
mean there's only so manypeople you can have in an
apprenticeship program at onetime.
Yeah, I mean, what's kind ofthe max?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Right now I think we have I just looked at it I think
we have nine in ourapprenticeship program right now
.
We try to do maybe two to threeevery year starting out because
it takes, like I said, aboutfour years to get through that.
But we have kind of expanded itso it's not just machining and
tool making.
We also have apprentices gothrough as an electrician to get
(30:03):
their electrician certification.
We have one apprentice inengineering our mechanical
design engineering departmentright now.
That has started out andhopefully that'll be a really
good fit.
We actually had a young lady gothrough in our accounting
department.
She was starting into heraccounting degree and we hired
her in the accounting departmentand made her an apprentice and
(30:26):
so we went through a veryspecific kind of created a
program for on the job trainingas well as her education.
And she's still with us todayand has really grown and stepped
up and now is kind of managingthe, the accounting group.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
You recently expanded into a building across the
street from your 200 industrialparkway site.
I was out of town for your openhouse, but I did get to see
some great pictures.
Just tell us a little bit aboutthat building and how you're
using it, integrating it withyour other one.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah, we well, like I mentioned, we've had a lot of
growth over the last couple ofyears and especially what we
needed was assembly floor space,because some of these
automation systems will take upa lot of floor space.
They may be 20 feet wide by 40feet long for this full system
and when you're going trying tobuild that system up in your
(31:20):
facility, make sure that it'srunning and working.
We invite customers in to runoff the equipment before we ship
it to their facilities.
We just were running short onfloor space.
We were actually looking thatwe we may have to may have had
to lease some space locally tofind some extra manufacturing
space for a short term.
(31:41):
But yeah, the building rightacross the street became
available.
It's about somewhere close toabout 25,000 square feet, so
with the two buildings combinednow it's about 100,000 square
feet.
So with the two buildingscombined now it's about 100,000
square feet, and there's also ahandful of offices over there.
So we did take advantage ofthat and our accounting team has
actually moved over there,which frees up some space in our
(32:03):
place, but, more importantly,it gives us a really big space
for assembling of some largesystems over there.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah, I've been in that building over the years
multiple times.
In my recollection overall it'sa pretty solid building.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah, and I think it was in probably decent shape.
Yeah, it's a really good find.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
You know one, the location being right across
street is very convenient.
But yeah, it's a good goodspace.
It's building seems to be heldup really well.
Good space.
This building seems to be heldup really well.
We did just some real basiccleanup and kind of painted the
overall manufacturing space justto kind of give it a fresher
look and feel.
But we had to do very little tobasically get it ready to move
(32:44):
in, and so we've already got abunch of projects over there
that we're using for assemblyspace.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
So how many people are over there in that building
for?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
assembly space.
So how many people are overthere in that building it will
vary depending on project, butright now in the office there's
generally about four people,four or five people, and then in
the manufacturing area there'sgoing to be six to eight at any
one time and as projects willfinish and complete those folks
will probably then move backover to our main building and
then we may have some differentones go over there to work on
(33:15):
some projects.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
evan flow yeah, well that's, that's great.
I'm glad you you know you'reutilizing that building.
It's not sitting there vacant,shifting gears.
Just a little bit giving backto community with your time,
talent and treasure has beenvery important for.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
A-House as a company.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
With Rick, kevin and you serving the community in
several organizations andcapacities and I mentioned
earlier that we serve togetheron the Boys and Girls Club of
Wayne County's Board ofDirectors and my apologies, but
I really want to share thisbecause I think it is kind of a
(33:56):
big deal, because you're apretty humble guy, but you
joined the board back in 06, andyou were board president in 16
and 17, which many people don'tknow.
If you get into the leadershippart of the of, like Jeff was
president, that's really aneight year commitment.
(34:17):
Yeah, yeah, cause you're secondvice president, vice president,
president and then a pastpresident.
So those are two year terms.
So that's, that's, that's a bigdeal.
Eight years, um, your boardmember of the year in no, nine?
Uh, you're a board member ofthe year in 09,.
A house tool in engineeringreceived the Earl and Catherine
mayor award in 2020.
You received the Bob Rosapresence award in 21 and the
(34:42):
champion of youth in 23.
And you've served on multiplecommittees with the club.
I mean, tell us why it's beenimportant for you to serve the
community in this way.
I know you, you believe it ornot, folks, I mean tell us why
it's been important for you toserve the community in this way.
I know you.
You believe it or not, folks, Imean, he served in other ways
to other organizations, but justwhy is that important to you
(35:04):
and why do you think it would beimportant for the people to
consider the same?
Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah, I think it's one of the things I I didn't
necessarily plan for or expectwhen we moved to Richmond.
You know I knew that.
You know some of Rick A House'shistory is, you know, served on
city council, school board,those sorts of things.
Even his, his dad, lauren AHouse, he was a school board
(35:30):
member at one point in time andso I knew that they were
involved.
But, uh, after coming here tothe community, um, really, I
think with the size of uh,richmond, it really allows for
for you to get involved in a lotof different things if, if you
want to and and make an impact,Um, and I think that that's what
kind of got me involved was,you know I want to make an
(35:51):
impact.
You know I think that thisRichmond community has a lot of
potential and you know there's alot of things that you know
used to be here, if you go allthe way back into the early
1900s.
Just a lot of, you know, just areally thriving, booming town.
And you know I see trying, youknow my personal efforts is how
can I help, you know, to improvesome things, how do I help get
(36:14):
some things back there?
And, in particular, I've alwaysenjoyed working with kids and
youth and getting into the Boysand Girls Club just seemed to be
like a natural thing for me.
Um, uh, galen Miller, who was apast president at a house tool,
was involved at the boys andgirls club and uh, shortly after
I came to Richmond, uh, he kindof pulled me aside and said,
(36:36):
hey, I think I, I think you'd begreat to be on the board there
and kind of plug me in.
Um, but yeah, it's, it's uhsuper, uh fulfilling to be able
to be part of an organizationthat is really trying to reach
those, those kids A lot of them,you know, are ones that really
need help.
You know a lot they need to.
Um, you know, it's kind of astable uh organization in in
(36:57):
their lives and uh, so it wasjust a natural for me to get
involved and try and do whateverI could to to make it better,
you know, to help out.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
So at least you don't get upset if I get to get it
wrong.
But I think you know we've theclub every day.
There's five to 600 kids everyday, you know, at one of our
local clubs.
Yeah, just one of the units,right?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
So that's, um, it's a big impact and, uh, they've
been very fortunate to have youas a part of it.
Um, so fortunate to have you asa part of it.
So you and I are not, I wouldsay, real old yet yeah, thank
you.
Thank you for saying that.
I think it's fair to say thatthe next year is based on where
(37:40):
we're at in age we're just twoyears apart Could involve some
big changes for each of us.
And so for you, I mean, whatdoes it look like for you in the
next five to 10 years?
I mean it's you've had a familybusiness I don't think there's
another family member currentlyinvolved in in a house, so
what's things look like like foryou personally?
(38:00):
You see moving forward in thecompany and maybe even a house
in general.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah, it's a good question, I feel like.
So Rick A-House was, you know,president of the company when I
came on board in 97.
And he was, I think, prettyinstrumental in trying to do
some things with successionplanning of the business, with
ownership, and you know back inthose days that actually the
ownership had gotten spread outquite a bit.
(38:28):
There's been stocks gifted tocertain members of a family and
he was pretty instrumental inkind of bringing that ownership
back to just a small, smallnumber of people.
And then also he's been, as heis retired, back in the early
two thousands and Kevin Hayhouseand I have taken over, excuse
me, running the and managing thebusiness.
(38:49):
He's been very good about kindof pushing succession planning,
good about, you know,transitioning of ownership, and
so Kevin and I have been able to, you know, through some gifting
and as well as acquiring stock,been able to get to the point
where, you know, the two of usare the two co-owners of the
business.
We have equal ownership.
Rick still has a few, you knowa.
Two of us are the two co-ownersof the business.
(39:10):
We have equal ownership.
Rick still has a few, you know,a small percentage of ownership
as well, but you know, inrecent years it's been okay.
What's next, right?
How do we succession plan, asKevin and I are, you know,
potentially looking atretirement or stepping into
something next.
What's that look like?
And so, yeah, we've been verystrong into thinking about it.
(39:31):
We currently don't have anynext generation family members
in the business and so we'vereally tried to make sure that
we are building up ourmanagement team, you know,
making sure we've got reallygood, strong people there.
And probably sometime in thenext you know could be anywhere
from a few years to.
You know, kevin and I bothprobably will step out into some
(39:52):
sort of retirement, partialretirement and we just want to
make sure that we've got areally good, strong management
team there to run the business.
And there may be a nextgeneration family member that
comes in at some point, butwe're not sure.
But our plan right now is tocontinue to own the business,
even when we're not running thebusiness and managing the
(40:12):
business, and we think thatthat's still real key is to have
that local ownership.
Um, you know, we've just seentoo many examples of of
companies that, um, you know,have sold to third parties, sold
to private equity, and then thebusiness ends up getting run in
the ground and so um, our, soour goal is to continue to own
the business while we are nolonger working there at some
(40:34):
point.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Well, it looks like you all have handled the
dynamics of family workingtogether very well.
I mean, I think you guys arelike fourth generation in your
company and I'm third generationin ours and I've worked with my
dad, my aunt, my sister, myself, my wife, and we've been
(40:59):
fortunate to be able to have thedynamics where we can work well
together.
I mean, any business has itschallenges and I'm sure that you
guys have had yours now andthen.
But when I look from theoutside, looking in, it looks
like you all do a great job ofworking well together and
everyone kind of has their spaceand what they're doing and it
(41:21):
seems like it works well.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah, it's one of the things when I was deciding
whether I should come toRichmond and I should come to
work at A-House one of the keys.
You know, I didn't, I didn'tknow a lot about the business,
um, I didn't have a uhexperience in machining or tool
making or uh that sort of thing,um.
But the thing that I did knowbecause I had married into the
family is I knew the quality ofthe people that were running the
(41:45):
business.
I knew Rick, I knew Kevin, andso I didn't have any question at
all in terms of stepping into acompany, you know, in terms of
how the business was run, theculture, the ethics, the morals,
all that sort of thing, allvery strong and I think those
things of what's helped us towork well together, that we
respect each other.
And you know, kevin and I havekind of run the business as
(42:09):
partners for the last, you know,almost 20 years, and I think
that's we have a real openrelationship and we've over the
years we kind of dividedresponsibility so that we're not
stepping on each other's toesand kind of get in areas where
we each have strengths, andthat's it's worked well for a
long time.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
Well, you had time, well, you had the, you had the,
um, the privilege of you knowthe time you were married before
you came back to richmond, uhto uh, you know they could
audition for your services andit seems like it worked out
pretty well so uh, great,anything as we kind of wrap it
up here, anything else you thinkthat we should talk about as
(42:49):
far as a house and what's goingon, and we've covered the gamut
pretty much.
Speaker 2 (42:53):
No, I just think you know, like you said, it's been a
really good fit for me to comehere and you know it's pretty
unusual to have a kind of likean in-law in the business but
very thankful that it worked outwell and it's great to be able
to be part of a small businesswhere you can make a positive
impact and part of a communitywhere you can make an impact.
(43:13):
And I think that's somethingthat we need to kind of push and
encourage other people in thecommunity is to say, hey, this
community is not going to getbetter on its own.
It needs strong leaders, strongpeople to go out there and get
involved in nonprofits, getinvolved in businesses and help
them be successful so that wecan kind of grow this, this town
in this area, to back where itpossibly used to be right.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, no, I think that, um, there's been occasions
uh maybe multiple in somepeople's opinion where we've, uh
communities kind of beenknocked down, but it seems like
we're pretty resilient, we keepon getting up and brushing off
our pants and, yeah, going at it, and I think there's kind of
that kind of a vibe in thecommunity right now where
(43:57):
there's a lot of good thingsgoing on, a lot of uh people
that are trying to make thiscommunity a better place, and we
just need to to have just morepositive thoughts within the
community in general and, uh,take advantage of some of the
things that we have moving ourdirection right now, so yeah,
absolutely so.
Uh, um, if any of our followersor followers are interested in
(44:18):
more information about a house,it's easy A housecom.
They got a lot of stuff onthere and lots of ways to learn
about their company.
So, thank you, jeff happening.
So, thank you, jeff, appreciateit yeah it's been great.
That's all for this episode ofthe hub.
Thanks again for listening andwe'll see you next time for
another conversation with adifference maker from our region
.
Manpower is proud to supportthe hub.
(44:38):
Find out how they can supportyour business at MP Richmondcom.
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