Honoring a family-owned metal manufacturing company on the move

Hickey Metal Fabrication, Salem, Ohio, installed five robotic welding cells in 2022 to keep up with its growing business.

Family-owned metal fabricating companies aren’t unique. In fact, in an industry that is dominated by small and medium-sized companies, a large percentage are family operations.

The unique family companies in the metal fabricating sector are those that have grown the business beyond the 50-employee level. That’s where the business side becomes a lot more complex. Human resource issues alone become much more involved with each employee that’s added to the payrolls. Also, as the customer base grows, so does the complexity of production scheduling and quality assurance. Growth brings both great opportunities and more challenges.

But individuals are always strongest when they feel someone has their backs, and when you are in a family company, you know that’s going to be the case. That’s exactly the situation at Hickey Metal Fabrication in Salem, Ohio. Hickey Metal is an 80-year-old family company that has just experienced back-to-back years of at least 30% sales growth and is just putting the final touches on its seventh building. It’s also invested heavily in new fabricating technology and automation to keep up with these new opportunities. Because of the company’s success, The FABRICATOR editors have awarded Hickey Metal the magazine’s 2023 Industry Award.

“Over 18 months, the world experienced a global pandemic, broken supply chains, labor shortages, historic price increases on raw materials, and a lot of uncertainty. When the pandemic hit, Hickey Metal was quick to react and even quicker to invest in our employees and customers,” wrote Adam Hickey, the company’s director of operations, in his company’s submission for the Industry Award. “With four generations, we have seen ups and downs and have had the discipline to invest and improve our operations to navigate the unknown.”

You’ll be able to read more about the company and its success in the February 2023 issue of The FABRICATOR. Hickey Metal Fabrication was not content to just ride out the uncertainty of the last two years, and its efforts and investments will be well-documented in the cover story that will appear early next year.

When families run their businesses as “lifestyle companies,” providing enough income to reward workers and the family members that own the company, they aren’t likely to think about growth. Their attention is on the present and putting out the fires of the day. Investing for potential growth and adding manufacturing capacity to tackle new opportunities are not for the faint of heart and require a certain amount of risk. That’s why The FABRICATOR likes to highlight a story like Hickey Metal. Growing companies capture the attention of those that might not pay attention to the importance of manufacturing in their communities. Growing family companies make that message all the more relatable and, honestly, likeable.

The story in February will be about a family company on the move, but Hickey Metal is just one of many companies out there that people would love to learn more about. If you have a good story to share, let us know. You also might be a good candidate for The FABRICATOR’s Industry Award down the road.

Editor's note: In 2020, The FABRICATOR celebrated its 50th anniversary, so we decided to catch up with some past Industry Award winners. Also read about last year's winner, O'Neal Manufacturing, and the 2021 winner, Laystrom Manufacturing.