Wisconsin family turns autobody business into metal fabrication shop

Figure 1
Matt Brunner, left, and his father Chris Brunner own and operate Brunner Fabrication LLC in Manitowoc, Wis. They started the business in July of 2018 after shutting down the family’s longtime autobody shop.

In Manitowoc, Wis., it hasn’t been uncommon to see a black 1935 Chevy pickup truck making its way around town over the past several years.

The 100 percent original vintage flatbed belongs to 56-year-old Chris Brunner, who for 18 years owned and operated an autobody shop in Manitowoc.

“I’m into old vehicles and I’ve always had old trucks,” Chris said. “But the minute I saw that picture of this old ‘35, I knew I had to have it.”

The truck, however, has become more than just a prized possession. It represents a major transition Chris and his son Matt, 29, have undergone over the past several months: turning the family’s longtime autobody shop into a metal fabricating shop, Brunner Fabrication LLC.

So, these days the vintage flatbed can be seen hauling stacks of sheet metal. “With a load on the back, you might be able to go over 25 [MPH],” Chris said with a chuckle. “But it works out perfect for hauling pallets when we have small, local deliveries.”

While the old ‘35 Chevy maneuvers at a leisurely pace making deliveries around Manitowoc, the Brunner family’s newly formed metal fabricating operation has been anything but slow.

Transitioning into metal fabrication

The motivation to start their own shop kicked in about a year ago.

From the moment Matt finished reading a story in THE FABRICATOR’s October 2017 issue about how two seasoned St. Louis-based metal fabricators left their jobs at a large company to start their own metal fabrication shop, BMF Metal Fabrication, he knew it was something he and his father could pull off.

Matt wasted very little time in reaching out to BMF Metal Fabrication co-founder Mark Chadwick via LinkedIn to pick his brain.

“He shot us a message almost immediately after the article was released,” Chadwick said. “He caught us at the right time too. We were only about a year and a half into our business, so it was all still pretty fresh. All those concerns about a startup business were right on the front of mind for me.”

Figure 2
Tera Brunner runs the Baileigh CNC press brake.

From there Matt had the perfect sounding board to talk pricing strategies, form times, and other operational concerns. “It wasn’t so much advice as it was just talking through the experience,” Chadwick said. As Chadwick went throughout his day—whether he was driving or working around his Winfield, Mo.-based shop—he would record notes, thoughts, and observations into his phone and relay them to Matt.

“Seeing what they were able to do with a small number of employees and limited space made me think, ‘Hey, let’s see if we can do this,’” said Matt, who has less than a decade of experience working in the metal fabrication industry with a couple of Wisconsin outfits. “I have the knowledge of metal fabrication and my dad has the knowledge of running a successful business for the last 18 years.”

Three days after reading the story and reaching out to Chadwick—full of inspiration and a preliminary business plan—Matt pitched the idea of starting a metal fabrication business to his father.

But that meant closing the doors on the autobody shop Chris built from the ground up nearly 20 years ago. Turns out, though, it didn’t take much convincing. Chris was ready to take his business in a new direction because of the physical toll he endured running an autobody shop and the lack of skilled automotive workers.

“People aren’t getting into the [autobody] industry, and for good reasons,” Chris said. “Wages at our auto shop were so minimal because it’s pretty regulated by the insurance industry. We built a wonderful client base over 18 years, but, as time went on, the physical stress and the anxiety were starting to take over. I hit a point where I couldn’t do it anymore and my body was breaking down a little bit.”

So, after crunching the numbers, getting paperwork in place with their local credit union, and putting to bed the autobody shop’s final projects, Brunner Fabrication LLC was ready to hit the ground running. During the first week of May, the Brunners—with the help of family and friends—began gutting their shop, nearly two decades of autobody operations. “The paint mixing room and all,” said Chris. “We had 18 years’ worth of dust to blow out.”

They wasted very little time. Friends and family were lining up to help with man lifts, forklifts, and Bobcats in tow. Within days the inside of the shop was unrecognizable. “Everyone really pitched in,” Chris said. “At one point we had 10 people here helping tear down.”

By late July the building formerly known as Chris Brunner’s Body Shop was an operational metal fabricating shop, with a 5-foot Baileigh CNC press brake and a fully automated TRUMPF TruLaser 2030 machine that cuts mild steel up to 3/4 inch, stainless steel up to 1/2 in., and aluminum up to 3/8 in.

The Brunners celebrated their new venture with family, friends, and Manitowoc city officials, including Mayor Justin Nickels and Chamber of Commerce members, during a ribbon cutting on Aug. 6.

Family in the fab shop

And with just a 40- by 50-ft. shop space, the Brunners are maximizing every inch.

Figure 3
Brunner Fabrication uses a 1935 Chevy pickup truck for small local deliveries around Manitowoc.

“Literally, the load side of the TRUMPF machine is 3 in off one wall and the unload side is 3 in. off another wall,” Matt said. “If you come here on a Thursday afternoon or Friday morning before a semi comes to pick up all the parts, you can barely move. But I’ll tell you what, that laser is still running.”

The company’s Facebook page lists its business hours as “always open.” Matt and Chris pride themselves on running a nearly 24/7 operation to move product out as fast as they can. That means not sitting on a purchase order.

“Our business model revolves around short lead time,” Matt said. “I’ve had jobs where I’ve quoted it at 7 in the morning and I’m shipping it to them at 3 in the afternoon.”

Out of the gate, business was slow. But a couple of months in, Brunner Fabrication LLC landed its most productive week since opening: shipping more than $20,000 worth of sheet metal product during a five-day span in August while operating only one shift per day.

But when similar orders finally started flowing with some consistency, it was clear the Matt and Chris needed some help in the shop running the laser and press brake. So, once again, they turned to family for help. “We’re very family-oriented,” Chris said. “When we’re in a bind, they’re here to help.”

Matt trained his wife, Tera, and his mother, Tracy, how to run the press brake, a job which the two rotate when Tera isn’t busy chasing around her and Matt’s three young sons (ages 1, 3, and 6) and Tracy isn’t working her full-time job as a trucking broker. And then Chris’ father Roger, a retired auto mechanic himself who was in the industry for 40 years, pitches in with small chores around the shop, whether it’s fixing broken custom-made sheet metal pallets or taking the ’35 Chevy pickup truck out for a delivery.

Now the Brunners are routinely pushing out close to 30,000 pounds’ worth of finished metal on a weekly basis—everything from bulk orders of finished sheet metal to one-off metal signs for mostly small to midsized Fox Valley-area companies. Sometimes they are even way ahead of schedule.

That’s the case with one job the Brunners landed for a billion-dollar OEM. “The largest commercial washer and dryer company in the world, that’s all I’ll say for now,” Matt said with a laugh. “It was a very large order. I remember when they called me and asked if we could handle it. The first three days of figuring out the engineering of it was a little rough. But we got it figured out.”

And when Matt visited the OEM after the Brunner Fabrication sent the first shipment, Matt noticed their product was still waiting to be used. “That was good to see,” Matt said. “We’re getting the product to clients before its even needed.”

It’s all part of the Brunner family work ethic. Usually seven days a week, Matt and Chris open shop doors as early as 4 a.m., working through the day late into the evening. And when Tera and Tracy rotate bending or unloading steel, Matt is tracking invoices, quoting purchase orders, or programming the laser for future projects.

“Everybody helps everybody,” Matt said. “We figure it out.”

Metal fab shop on the fast track

Matt has made a career out of “figuring it out.” As the son and grandson of auto mechanics, he grew up in autobody shops, working on everything from drag racing cars to dirt bikes. And he became a fast learner working in his dad’s body shop during high school.

“The autobody industry is all about perfection,” said Chris, who taught Matt that it’s better to learn to fix something on your own than to waste time and money to hire someone else to do it. “And I think because of that, [Matt] knows what it takes to do this type of business and translate that over to what we’re doing today.”

After graduating from Manitowoc Lincoln High School in 2007, Matt took his autobody knowledge, as well as his brief experience working in construction, and headed into the metal fabricating industry in 2011. He started with Brillion, Wis.-based lawn and snow equipment manufacturer Ariens Co. as an entry-level laser operator. Three months later he was promoted to a laser and robotics technician after using the “fix-it-yourself” mentality that Chris instilled.

“When a laser would break down, I would have to call for maintenance,” Matt said. “But the wait would take one or two hours, so I would just tear the laser apart and learned how to fix it on my own.”

Soon after, Matt was quickly promoted throughout Ariens after completing a company-run lean manufacturing internship. He served as a manufacturing engineer to spearhead product implementation and capital equipment purchasing as well as became supervisor of the company’s fabrication department, which included overseeing 90 second-shift laser operators, formers, and welders. Matt was then recruited by Alliance Laundry Systems in Ripon, Wis., as a fabrication programmer and engineer.

Colleagues, including BMF’s Chadwick, can’t help but be impressed with how Matt has been able to fast-track his less than 10-year metal fabricating career into running his own business all before the age of 30.

“It’s really quite impressive,” said Chadwick, who still stays in contact with Matt once a month to talk shop. “There are just so many pieces to pull together. I had to work in the industry for 30 years—longer than he’s been alive—to finally know I was ready to jump out there on my own.”

But Matt admits this all wouldn’t be possible without his parents. “They own the building and know how to run a business.”

And the Brunners couldn’t be more pleased with how their new metal fabricating business is running through the first months, especially for such a small operation relying on only one laser and one press brake. “We’re definitely above expectations,” Matt said.

Exceeding expectations has meant premature expansion. The Brunners recently broke ground to add 1,000 sq. ft. of shop space for a 12-ft press brake. “Out 5-footer isn’t covering all of our requests,” said Matt, adding that at some point they want to upgrade to a fiber laser and expand into welding. They are also in the process of interviewing to fill a “utility” position—someone who can do everything around the shop floor.

Even though the Brunner metal fabrication venture has been moving along successfully at a rapid pace, Matt and Chris don’t feel hurried. In fact, they’ve never been happier or more relaxed.

“I feel like a different person,” Chris said. “I spend more time with my family—my wife and Matthew—now than ever. That wasn’t the case with the body shop. It’s enjoyable now. I love walking through that door in the morning.”

Brunner Fabrication LLC, www.facebook.com/BRUNNERFABRICATIONLLC/