Posted: 4/13/06
In the running for national award
By Joel Stottrup
Glenn Metalcraft Inc. (GMI), a metal-spinning business in Princeton, has been selected one of seven finalists for the United States Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year Award.
Small business in this case is defined as 250 employees or fewer.
Owners Ginger Glenn and her son Joe Glenn, along with company vice president Joe Roberts, said the honor means a lot considering that GMI has 30 employees.
The business produces a lot of products for combines and tractors that have a dome or conical shape in many cases because of the metal spinning process used.
Ed Glenn founded the company as a machine shop at 37th and University Avenue in Minneapolis in 1945. In the mid 1960s Ed and his son, Dennis Glenn, decided to phase into a new business called metal spinning. It involves starting with a round disk attached to a spinning mandrel, or axle, and then a roller is pushed against the disk for shaping.
Dennis and his wife Ginger bought shares from Glenn family members in 1983 to become sole owners of GMI and set up a factory in Princeton's industrial park on Jan. 1, 1984.
The business began with five employees in 1984 and at one time employed a peak of 40 full-time employees. Automation has trimmed the workforce to 30.
Ginger Glenn and Joe Roberts explained that the company has found a niche in the metal spinning industry. It now handles heavier gauge metal, and produces products with closer tolerances, Ginger said, adding that the company does jobs that many metal spinners can't handle. The company, at the same time, has dropped smaller contracts and concentrated on larger ones.
Dennis Glenn died last year and when Ginger was asked recently for her thoughts on the company's connection with her husband, she said his spirit lives on at the company through her and son Joe.
Dennis had such a large role in getting the company to where it is, having trained half of the employees, Ginger said.
Innovation and civic involvement were two big factors for GMI being listed as one of 60 Blue Ribbon companies by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Six of the 60 are from the Midwest region (Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Iowa and Nebraska) and three of the six are in Minnesota.
It was from those 60 that one from each of the seven regions was chosen to be a national finalist.
One of the pieces of criteria for naming the national finalists is a company's civic involvement. GMI was nominated for the honor by the Princeton Area Chamber of Commerce, Princeton High School, Oakland Cooperative and the Initiative Foundation.
Ginger, last Friday, explained some of GMI's civic involvement. She said GMI began more than a decade ago getting involved in civic programs that focused on young people. One of the first was Princeton Loves its Kids.
The company later started an apprenticeship program in which high school students can sign a contract to work part time at a factory, GMI being one of those on the list. It's a way to learn about working and exploring a career, Ginger noted.
Ginger also pushed to get a program called Working Together, in which people from industry spend a few days in a high school classroom to see the teachers' world, and teachers spend time in industries to learn about that.
When the teachers come out to the factories and work with the employees, the employees are often parents of students those teachers have, and it makes a "powerful, powerful" connection, Ginger said.
Another connection between GMI and students is GMI's annual bell-making project. The bells are made and math students, sometimes in the at-risk category, use math to design the bell.
Nealna Gylling, a teacher at the high school, has been one of the teachers who has spent some time at GMI's factory floor to learn about it, and she represented the high school in nominating GMI for the national award.
Gylling told how Ginger has been very active in the East Central Workforce Cooperative for more than a decade. It includes businesses, schools, colleges and agencies in a four-county area studying common workforce issues. A main one is learning what kind of education a prospective factory worker should have to become employable.
GMI is "highly deserving" of the award, Gylling said, citing the support GMI has shown for area youth. It has "truly made a difference in Princeton," Gylling continued.
"They [GMI staff members] not only believe that building relationships has a positive effect in a community, they participate in activities to make those relationships happen. Watching the excitement of the students when their [Christmas] bell is produced, is an incredible experience. Seeing 17-year old boys turn into confident young men on the apprenticeship program is an awesome experience."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will hold a summit called Access 2006 in Washington, D.C., in May and name the national small business of the year winner.
Ginger and Joe Glenn, Joe's wife Shannon, Roberts and his daughter Jenny, and GMI human resources director Julie Forsgren plan to attend the summit. Gylling may also attend.
Ginger, looking forward to the summit, said that no matter the outcome, getting selected to be a national finalist is an honor, and validates the work the company has done.
Princeton Union-Eagle
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Princeton, MN 55371
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