Michigan fabricator discusses what it takes to grow, retain workers

Including its two founders/co-owners, the shop employs a dozen people. Images: Elite Welding & Fabrication

Like many in the welding community, Nate Quick and Adam Lonsbury took a risk and left their previous jobs to start their own business. Elite Welding & Fabrication was the result of that bold move.

“Let’s take some risks, start up a business, and see what happens,” recalled Quick, who co-owns the shop with Lonsbury.

The two wanted a name that made people think of the phrase “the best you can be.” The word “elite” came up in brainstorming. Does the name of this Galesburg, Mich., business match what they bring to the table? Quick and Lonsbury think so.

The founders believe their approach to current and future shop expansion and recruiting and retaining workers has helped them build a solid reputation in the Kalamazoo, Mich., region.

“Things are a little different here,” Quick said of Elite.

‘A Welder and a Dream’

Elite Welding & Fabrication started with “a welder and a dream.” Quick and Lonsbury each had a welding machine, and the two later added a third.

For the first couple of years, they attempted to balance their new small business and their day jobs by working after hours. In 2019, they finally went full time with Elite.

“A lot of long hours, looking forward to that bigger goal,” Quick said.

Lonsbury started welding in 2007, first learning the skill at a vocational school. Meanwhile, welding and entrepreneurship were always at the back of Quick’s mind. As a teen, Quick burned and sold CDs. He also learned how to weld.

“This is pretty cool, this is fun, there’s a lot to learn with it,” Quick said of learning how to weld in school. “From there, that’s when I started looking for a career in fabricating. When I first started in manufacturing, I started in assembly, materials coordinating. When I went to the last company I worked for, I started my welding career.

The shop provides contract manufacturing, CNC cutting and forming, welding, metal fabrication, 3D CAD support, and prototyping to customers. It also provides custom fabrication services and quick welding repair work.

“Fabrication comes naturally for me as well as for my business partner,” he added.

Being Elite

Quick said, “People work with us because they know what they’re going to get from us.” The client/customer list even includes Quick’s former employer.

Even though it hasn’t been around for that long, Elite has equipment and machinery to satisfy customer needs and projects, including welding machines, a 5- by 10-ft. 4-kW laser table, 4- by 8-ft. CNC plasma table, CNC shear, CNC press brake, hydraulic benders, and sheet rollers.

“The one thing when you come to our shop is it’s not your typical dark, dingy fab shop with old equipment,” Quick said. “We've got state-of-the-art equipment here, we’ve got full fume extraction, it’s well lit, everything is clean.”

When asked about additional equipment, Lonsbury added, “We’ve actually knocked a lot of things off our list we talked about getting. It's hard to say right now.”

Services provided by the shop include contract manufacturing, CNC cutting and forming, welding, metal fabrication, 3D CAD support, and prototyping.

While they have larger clients in the area seeking large, complex work like structural steel components, food-grade stainless steel products, aluminum MIG and TIG products, just to name a few, they will still do small weld repairs and projects.

“We enjoy custom fab, we love custom fab, it's just not as predictable and repeatable. But we do well with contract manufacturing,” Quick said.

“We like to say, ‘If it's made of metal, we can do it,’” he added.

Elite is not afraid of expanding and getting creative if it means attracting or retaining customers. Earlier this year, Elite added an overhead crane to the shop. In the past, one of its customers had a project in mind, but Elite did not have the lifting capacity to make it happen.

The Elite team likes to build its own custom fixtures in-house, such as this rotisserie-style fixture.

“We needed to have that crane to do these very large weldments one of our current customers needed,” Lonsbury said of the purchase. “We also have another customer who can start giving us more work because we installed the crane.”

The Elite team likes to develop and fabricate custom fixtures in-house that workers use on projects. For instance, the team made an 87-in.-long, 60-in.-deep, 60-in.-tall rotisserie-style fixture made primarily of steel. It has a pneumatic actuated braking system, mechanical lifting system, and it rotates on pillow block bearings.

“It’s height adjustable, the plates on it can be unbolted, and we can bolt a whole other set of plates for a different product,” said Quick, who described it as a prototype. “The plan is we continue to build products like this to make repeat processes better, more effective, and for controlling our quality.”

The two said they would like to grow and expand the shop. Quick said nowadays he focuses a lot on long-term and short-term business planning.

“We’re looking at a very large expansion within the next five years. We're starting to put things in line for that,” he said.

More Than Just a Job

Including the two founders, the shop employs a dozen people. The co-owners believe they have provided a relaxed work environment for their employees. They have bonus programs. They hold employee appreciation outings. They want employees to feel wanted and comfortable.

“People who just want to come in and work, work, work, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s great too. But we also want people to get along and talk to each other and hang out. We want people to enjoy work as much as you can enjoy work while at work,” Quick said.

While not always the case, hiring someone with many years of experience may bring unwanted baggage, they say.

“I feel like they almost have this ego about them. Whereas if you take someone who has never fabricated, they are eager and excited. It does take that right person for us to make an offer to. We want someone who is excited and going to take it and run with it,” Quick said.

Robin Quick, one of the shop welders and Quick’s wife, came in with little experience. But through practice, guidance, and small contributions to projects, her skill set grew to the point where she was able to leave her previous job and join Elite full time.

The shop installed an overhead crane in early 2023 to expand the type of projects and requests it can accommodate.

“They’re all really good people here, and they all have such great attitudes and put the effort in,” she said. “Not everybody gets to work with the owners of a company and see how happy their work makes them.”

The shop values everyone’s input, whether they’re new or experienced in metalwork, she said.

“Not coming from a fabrication and welding background, I definitely look at things a lot different than they do,” Robin added. “It's been kind of fun giving my differing input on some of the things that they do. [Nate and Adam] have a way of doing things, and then I come in from left field with my ideas— sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.”

Hiring people who are newer to the welding field has been a positive for shop operations. This includes hiring people who are still attending welding school, people who have done very basic welding at previous jobs, and self-taught welders.

The team created a customized training matrix and developed a manual for employees. Lonsbury and Robin often are the ones who work directly with the less experienced team members. Sometimes those less experienced team members will partner with the experienced employees who are proficient in specific processes.

A designated training space allows employees to practice their welding techniques. Training varies and is based on an employee’s experience, and the Elite team tries to not rush anyone because everyone comes in at different skill levels.

“We may have somebody who starts with us who had a rough weld test but responded to the training well and responded well to the directions. If we see them as a good fit, we’ll bring them in,” Quick said.

On-site training has been successful because of the diverse workload the shop deals with and because it may have multiple projects going on at once that require different metals, welding processes, materials, and sizes—all opportunities for welders to improve.

“We’re able to train them in the way we want to see things done, so it helps us a lot better than getting someone who is already set in their ways,” Lonsbury said.

Michigan-based Elite Welding & Fabrication is trying to live up to its name with its approach to expansion, recruiting and retaining workers, and the quality of work it provides to customers.