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Editor’s Note: Articles in Media Spotlight are excerpts from publications or broadcasts that show the industry what the public is reading or hearing about fasteners and fastener companies.
Quickscrews International CEO Greg Wiener started selling nails, staples and glue out of his garage in 1987. Two decades later he’s built a multi-million dollar business by designing fasteners for construction and home installation.
Wiener, 52, was recently featured in the Contra Costa Times as an example of a business owner who is adapting to the 21st century marketplace.
“The fastener business is a $30 billion a year industry, but fasteners for wood is a much smaller part of that,” Wiener told the Times. “That’s the part of the industry we felt we could carve out.”
Quickscrews designs fasteners in the U.S., and then has them manufactured in Taiwan.
After watching annual revenues drop by half to about $6 million during the recession starting in 2008, Wiener reportedly had to make changes.
“We were decimated by the recession, and suddenly it was clear if we didn’t do anything we wouldn’t survive,” he told the Times.
Wiener laid off about half of his workforce, added a co-pay to health benefits and cut management pay as much as 60%.
“It was one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do, but if I didn’t do it we would have been doomed.”
Lean times prompted other company changes as well.
Wiener added a website to sell directly to consumers. He also looked beyond the construction industry for new markets. He settled on the solar industry.
“Using his knowledge of wood fasteners, Quickscrews has come up with a way to install solar panels onto roofs much cheaper and more effectively than what’s already available,” Times writer David Morrill reported.
Quickscrews plans to exhibit at the Intersolar trade show in San Francisco in July, where the company plans to introduce its patented pre-mounting solar kit, according to its website.
Quickscrews has its corporate headquarters and a warehouse in Livermore, CA. The company also operates a facility in Rock Hill, SC. ©2011 GlobalFastenerNews.com
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