Success Story for Monroe County – Met-L-Tec, LLC

August 16, 2016

Met-L-Tec, LLC is a custom machine builder of complete turnkey systems and a leading maker of industrial masking tools. Headquartered in Michigan, it is a family-owned business which serves companies in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Met-L-Tec has over 40 years of experience and are experts in creating components, tooling and systems for masking of parts, including design and fabrication of custom nesting and fixturing. Their tooling is found in companies in the automotive, lighting, and many other industries.

A rapidly growing part of Met-L-Tec is the building of coating and curing systems, fluid transfer systems, high pressure water deflashers, ovens, mask washers, turntables, and slide robotic systems. Some of these systems can be very large and require more ceiling space and square footage to build.

One of Met-L-Tec’s Owner’s and President, Jeffrey Schmitz, had to start turning down work due to their physical spaces and lack of capacity. Additionally, the company was working out of two buildings, one in Michigan and one in Ohio.

The company considered both Michigan and Ohio as they looked to expand their facility along with consolidated the multi-state operation.

The Monroe County BDC was able to connect the company with an experienced real estate broker with extensive industrial property experience to assist the company in selling their existing buildings. The BDC connected the company with the MEDC who worked with the company to provide a much needed job training grant. The company was able to negotiate a sale of a nearby Michigan building that would meet their current and expanding business requirements.

Financial Impact

The Temperance-based company invested just over $2 million in the real property and capital improvements to the property, which include a new 12’ CNC Press Brake as well as a Fiber Optic laser. The MEDC provided the company with a $105,000.00 grant that will provide job training to 14 new employees along with employment services from the Monroe County Michigan Works office.

Employment Impact

Prior to the expansion, Met-L-Tec’s employment was 30 persons; these jobs were all retained in Michigan as result of the expansion. Over the next 2 years, the company expects to double their workforce as they expand into their larger consolidated facility.

Met-L-Tec is proud of their employees’ loyalty, years of experience and teamwork. They think great people differentiate a good company from a great one.

Industry Impact

By expanding into the fabrication of new coating and curing systems, Laser cutting and CNC forming, the company has not only secured a more sustainable business model but have added value to the supply chain of their customers. With these new product lines their customers are able to add value processing within the assembly process thereby taking costs out of the product and speed throughput.