 
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
              
|
Company in the Spotlight: Gorrell Enterprises is glad to be back in the family
Sunday, October 31, 1999 By Steve Massey, Post-Gazette Associate Editor
It's only appropriate that Gorell Enterprises Inc. hails from the home of Jimmy Stewart, the late movie star whose characters often stood for what's good and decent and right about America.
For the story of the Indiana, Pa., replacement window and door company is very much a story of what's good and decent and right. It is a story of a factory that slipped out of a family's hands, only to founder under foreign ownership. Now it's back in the fold, where once again it's prospering.
So much so that earlier this month, Gorell was named the nation's 30th fastest-growing private company by Inc. magazine, with annual sales growing 4,115 percent the past five years, to almost $16 million. Founder and president Wayne C. Gorell says sales this year will top $20 million, and should top $100 million in five years.
Gorell couldn't be happier.
This was the family's business, and now that he has it back, the thing that makes him most proud is that the Gorell name once again is associated with a quality product made by quality people -- workers who take such pride in their craftsmanship that there's no need for a quality-control department. "We have 300 quality control monitors," Gorell says, referring to everyone in the building.
The Gorells' involvement in the business began in 1947, when Peabody High School graduate and Army veteran Frank Gorell acquired a controlling interest in the former Aluminum Fabricating Co. in Pittsburgh. He later bought the rest of the company, changed the name to Season-All Industries Inc., and in the late 1950s, moved operations to Indiana, Pa.
Over the years, Season-All enjoyed enormous success, employing more than 1,000 at its main facility and three other plants. It was considered a good place to work, with the elder Frank and his two sons, Franklyn and Wayne, maintaining an open-door policy. It was a union shop, but relations between management and the rank-and-file were never strained.
Then in 1979, Season-All began its descent after selling to a British-German conglomerate, Redland Ltd. and Braas & Co. By 1984, losses had ballooned to $14 million. The two brothers bought it back in 1985, and immediately turned a profit. But then Franklyn wanted out, so in 1988, the Gorells sold the business again, this time to Indal Ltd., a Canadian concern.
Web site:www.gorell.com
It suffered a similar fate under the new foreign owner. In 1992, Wayne Gorell was dumped as president. A year later, Indal unveiled plans to move Season-All to non-union Mississippi. The Indiana facility was closed, eliminating more than 400 jobs in the economically struggling community.
This wouldn't do for Wayne Gorell. Working with the state and a hodgepodge of lenders, he pieced together a deal to buy the vacant Indiana plant. In its first year of operation, sales didn't even reach $400,000, primarily because it didn't start up until August, missing out on the summer selling season.
It's been a steady climb ever since, and, as of 1998, a profitable one, too. Last year marked the first time that Gorell Enterprises actually made money after making payments to the lenders who helped it buy the plant and equip it with state-of-the-art machinery.
In fact, one of the best things that happened when the facility closed in 1993 was Indal's decision to strip the plant's equipment, thus forcing Gorell to buy new machines. Now virtually every aspect of window- and door-making is automated, with workers running the computers that control the machines.
Gorell probably could automate even further and use fewer workers, but that would run counter to his ideals. "A big part of the reason we started this was to employ people," he says. He even set up a gym inside the plant and established walking classes to help workers keep in shape (It helps keep health insurance premiums down, too). He also instituted four-day, 10-hour shifts so everyone can have three-day weekends.
"It's important to spend time with the family," Gorell says. Indeed, one could say that taking care of the family, and the family business, is a passion of his.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Headquarters: Indiana, Pa.