Tooele City Feels Like Home to Central States Manufacturing

Manufacturing is a significant growth sector for the Utah economy thanks to companies like Central States Manufacturing . The company announced an expansion in Tooele City ?in June 2023, after working with Tooele City Corporation , Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah) , and several Utah partners to evaluate locations for their next manufacturing facility.

An employee-owned business headquartered in Arkansas, Central States produces metal building components for residential, commercial, and agricultural projects. We caught up with CEO James Sliker to learn more about the company’s values and why it chose Utah and Tooele City for its expansion.

What prompted Central States’ expansion into Utah?

We've got big growth goals, and we've been blessed with results. When I stepped into this role, we had revenues of $265 million. This year, we're going to close around $900 million in revenue. We doubled the number of our locations, and we're expanding our reach regularly. We also reached a point in our business where we have enough sales west of the Rocky Mountains to support a western expansion.

We narrowed our western expansion down to three states, and we ultimately selected Utah for two reasons: Utah offers valuable logistics advantages, and we felt we could be successful hiring in Utah. In this day and age, the hardest thing about growing a company is securing and retaining talent.

What’s your experience working with the EDCUtah, Tooele City, and others?

From the very beginning, we experienced successful and open dialogue with everyone from EDCUtah, Tooele City, and other parties. I've been able to talk about our needs, concerns, and constraints openly and honestly. All parties are interested in finding win-win solutions, and we continue to receive support as we establish operations. ?

Tim Ruger, our business unit president over the facility, and I put boots on the ground to get feel for the communities we were considering. I met with Tooele City Mayor Debbie Winn, her team, and other community partners. A local company was kind enough to show us their operations. I also participated in a local community service project.

I was super impressed with Mayor Winn. She truly cares about her constituents, and she wants to improve their well-being. She is a partner with businesses, easy to work with, and very transparent. ?

Tooele fits our culture, and everybody I met had that “own it, can do, act in love” mindset. We thrive in small towns – and it’s also a growing area, so the number of potential candidates is there. After the visit, Tim and I looked at each other and said, “This feels like home.” ?

When do you anticipate the Tooele facility to be up and running?

This plant is our 12th U.S. manufacturing facility, and it will be one of our largest at approximately 115,000 square feet. It will support our full product line for current large customers and new partners from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. Over the next five years, the company plans to invest over $25 million in the facility. It will have the capacity for three operational shifts, like most of our plants.

We named Jered Chandler the Tooele plant manager in September. Our current plan of record is to commission the site in May. In late March, we hope to do an open house, introduce ourselves to the community, do a big service project, and hold a recruiting fair. We might even do something fun like a community cookout.

We want to introduce ourselves and give people an understanding of who we are and what we're about. We would then start hiring. Our commitment to Utah is to hire 150 jobs over the next five years. We'll start out with a single shift of operation, but I'm excited to see that grow over five years, and I'm very optimistic about the plan we've got together. We’re happy to be part of the Utah family.

Tell us more about what it means to be employee-owned.

We're a purpose-driven company. Our purpose is to provide well-being and financial freedom for employee owners and their families. We really live by it. It's our true north. Part of this approach requires a meaningful compensation and benefits programs. It also takes training and development to help employees be all they can be and to find satisfaction in their jobs.

Employee ownership is our primary vehicle to financial freedom. We all have skin in the game and a stake in the outcome. Employees are an owner on day one of employment. At the end of every year, our share price is determined by a third-party, independent, unbiased trustee. Our employees get a contribution of stock, based on a percent of their earnings. ?

This keeps us focused on customer service. We operate in line with our values, and so that we can successfully grow the business and the share price—which accumulates wealth for all the employee owners. ?

Our values can be described in three simple phrases: Own It, Can Do, Act in Love. ?

We have a commitment to the customer, the company, and each other before self in that order. We’re trying to make raving fans out of our customers by being easy to work with, having a high degree of quality, and caring about our customer’s business as much as we care about our own.

We want to be reliable and do good work. We're not perfect by any means. There are going to be constraints, there will be things that go wrong, and there will be things we don't do well. We understand the need for change and we're open to it. We take pride in what we do, and we try to understand root causes to get better.

We delegate the decision-making authority to the frontline employees who serve our customers. Our people can determine pricing, address issues, and approve reimbursements. We trust the owners to do a good job for customers.

When our customers visit our plants, the first thing they notice is that our people care about their work and the people around them. Our customers love their delivery drivers, they love their inside-sales people. That’s because we also strive to act in love. The word love for us is an everyday feeling. With every interpersonal interaction we have, either inside the company or externally, we get to choose how we act. We choose patience, kindness, and humility. ?

Those are our values, the foundational pillars of our culture—and that's what makes us special. ?

How does being employee-owned impact the company’s goals and strategy?

Central States is the first company that I’ve worked for that's employee-owned. I've been here 11 years, but I don’t think my personal strategy has had to change. My philosophy and actions—transparency in the business, sharing all the scorecards, communicating financial results to all staff—already align with employee ownership. It’s my job to serve the people here. ?

The biggest difference is that when we set strategies, we evaluate whether it will help us provide well-being and financial freedom for employee owners and their families.

We have never had a layoff, nor would we ever, unless it was to truly protect the company from catastrophic conditions. We’re in the construction industry. It is very cyclical, and we go through ups and downs. But during COVID-19, for example, we never even talked about layoffs. That creates some challenges in the business in how we deal with business cycles.

The other big change for me is the passion. I love that people in this company speak freely. They challenge the business. They challenge me. That creates such a great dynamic inside the organization.

“The Prosperity Post” highlights examples of the impact of EDCUtah, our investors, and expanding companies in communities across the state. Do you have a story you’d like us to share? Email?[email protected] .