Helping after Supoerstorm Sandy

There are no two ways about it: Superstorm Sandy was devastating, and the effects are still being felt.  Months later, people are still cleaning up and desperately trying to rebuild their shattered towns, businesses, and most importantly, lives. Experts are now putting the damage estimate from Sandy at an unprecedented and overwhelming $62 billion.

At Keats, we have been working overtime since the day after the storm to help our affected customers. We knew right away our customers where going to need our help, so not only have we reached out on a personal level, but we’ve have also been adding extra shifts and working over normal production capacity.  All three of our locations, Keats, Keats Coastal Stamping, and Keats Southwest will be working through as much of the holidays as possible to help our East Coast friends and clients get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

On a personal level, we would hope that during this season of celebration you would dig deep and give those still struggling your time, money, and prayers. Contact a trusted charity in your area and see what help and services they are offering to those still suffering and struggling under the weight of this unprecedented disaster. It’s just the right thing to do.

Start Up to Quick Growth

Running a successful business like Keats is one thing, but expanding it properly is another. In this video, Matt Keats tells how he was able to open Keats Southwest in El Paso, Texas quickly and efficiently. He tells a great story about how they were able to unplug machines in their Chicago plant on a Friday, and have them up and running the next Monday in El Paso. For Matt, this was one of the big keys to success of Keats Southwest. By being prepared to go from day one, no time and money was wasted in the transition. He also touches on how the business grew from these well-organized early days. It is a great example of why Keats has remained on top of the precision metal stamping world for so long. It is also a helpful tool for anyone thinking of expanding their business into a new market.

Keats and the High-End Appliance Renaissance



The demand for high-end
appliances continues to grow.



At a time when thing are still not back to normal with our economy, retailers are wary of over stocking their shelves and warehouses.  However, there is one group of items that they are actually having trouble keeping in stock. Chain stores like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Lowe’s keep bringing in shoppers in the market for high-end appliances.  Each is competing with the other to sell the latest restaurant-grade stoves and high-tech dishwashers. Unlike the home electronics market, appliance prices have stayed steady and are actually starting to rise. Thus as the stores begin to discount to compete with each other it raises the interest of customers who in general are afraid to part with their money.  These aren’t giant discounts, so the sellers are still turning a profit off these high-end goods. It’s not to say that the industry is back from the brink, experts still project a 1% drop in large appliance sales for 2012, but it is good to see that things are at least heading in a positive direction.

As always, all three of our locations, Keats, Keats Coastal Stamping, and Keats Southwest will continue providing the appliance industry with the very best small metal stampings, wireforms, and assemblies around. Even during tough times, quality and amazing customer service never go out of style.

Quality Means Everything to Keats

It should come as no shock that Matt Keats and the entire Keats family believe quality means everything.  In many ways, Keats feels personally responsible for every part that leaves any of its facilities. In this video, Matt makes clear that he and the rest of the company never want to be reason for a recalled product. He also spells out in detail how Keats is able to maintain the absolute highest quality standards.

A commitment to quality isn’t just about the parts we make, it also affects how we do business. Matt also touches on how a positive attitude is a critical part in keeping a business going strong through good and bad times. If you hire quality people, have a quality attitude, and deal with quality finance people, in the end your business will thrive and your name and products will be respected.

Keats and the Home Building Resurgence

Workers are back on the job with construction
 spending up almost 13% since early 2011.

Recent reports show that home building in the U.S. is on the rise. It is big news because it has rarely been the case since the recession began in 2008. In fact, construction spending is up almost 13% from early 2011. In the middle of all this promising news, Keats has been receiving a lot of new work from the residential electrical industry. More specifically, we’ve been working with companies that specialize in electrical distribution and circuit breaker boxes. If you’ve ever seen the inside of a breaker box, you are aware that it is a complex piece of equipment. There is very little room for error when it comes to powering a home, so precision and quality are essential. 

The reason we’ve seen so much business from this sector, is that Keats is equipped to handle the metal stamping necessary to craft the perfect circuit breaker box. Both our Wheeling and El Paso locations have four-slide technology, which turns out to be very well-suited for the work at hand. It is an efficient way to achieve the complex formed and bended shapes that are necessary for these components. As an added bonus, it produces much less scrap, which is a giant cost savings across the board.

As the economy keeps trending upwards, Keats is ready, willing, and able to handle anything the residential electrical industry can throw at us!

Expanding with Keats



Part of the recently added manufacturing space at Keats.



2012 has been a much better year for the auto and home building industries. After years of low home prices, foreclosures have slowed and sales and starts have picked up. The auto industry has seen an equally impressive if not more robust comeback. Since 2009 they have added almost 25% more jobs and they are producing and selling many more cars and trucks.

At Keats, much of our work is derived from these two giant and now recovering industries. Because of this involvement, we have seen a recent increase in both demand and production. We are acquiring office space in our area, and turning it into manufacturing space. This expansion will allow us to handle the kind of demand that is only getting stronger by the day.

Along with expansion, we have recently added 10 new employees to the Keats family. As with all the hiring we do at Keats, we took a great deal of time and effort to find the right employees.  At Keats, we only hire people who show us that they are hardworking, dedicated, and honest. Skills can always be taught, but strength of character is something no amount of training can ever give you. 

Keep checking the blog to learn more about how Keats is expanding to meet the needs of an ever-brightening future.

Matt Keats talks about Hiring for the Future

A business is nothing without the right employees. The act of hiring is in itself a hard to master art form. You can have the perfect product and a massive client list, but without an outstanding staff, they aren’t worth much. If you don’t have the right team on the floor, you will find that it is nearly impossible to put out a high quality product that will keep your customers happy and coming back year after year. So what are the secrets to hiring? What can you do to build an organization that will thrive even as employees come and go?

Matt Keats, from Keats Southwest, has some very clear ideas on how to put together a staff that not only produces, but also shares a common vision. In the highly informative video below, Matt takes you through the entire hiring philosophy and process and that has made all three of Keats’ locations leaders in the world of small metal stampings, wireforms, and assemblies.

Matt Keats and Establishing Keats in El Paso

When you expand your business into a new community there are any number of challenges. First and foremost, you have to bring with you an amazing product or service that will add to an already existing business environment.  However, just having the best of something will not guarantee success; it is important that you connect with your new surroundings on a personal level.

When our own Matt Keats created Keats Southwest in the summer of 1994, he was faced with a unique challenge: bring a historically Midwestern business to the great city of El Paso, Texas. We could try and tell the story of how Matt successfully made the transition, but instead we think it would be better if we let Matt share his truly unique insights. Enjoy!

Fishin’ with Keats

Despite a few stops and starts and some springtime snowstorms, it’s about that time of year again to get out the old fishing rod and tackle box. Nothing is more relaxing (or for that matter, frustrating) than spending a day on the water and putting a hook in the water. At Keats, we are no different. Quite a few of us have used our vacation and weekend time trying to catch the “big one”! 

That’s why everyone at Keats was thrilled when a big name in the recreational fishing industry came to us with an exciting and challenging project. The client wanted to produce something called a “speed clip” which was to be attached to their custom fishing rods. This unique clip was designed to replace the swivel on the rod, and it would allow users to quickly change the type of lure they were using without a great deal of effort.

Working closely with the client, we were able to apply our state-of-the-art four-slide technology to manufacture the clip.  Thanks to our years of experience and highly trained staff, we were able to turn what was an expensive and difficult to produce multi part assembly into a one-piece assembly that saved both money and time.  The best part is that the customer was so pleased he has been relying exclusively on Keats to produce his speed clips for most of the last decade.

While not everyone can fully appreciate how great it is to be able to change lures quickly while in the middle of a long day of fishing, they can appreciate the high quality work, the amazing customer service, and the cost-effectiveness that comes with everything we create.

The Kids Really Are Our Future

At Keats, we know that there is a great future in metal stampings and wire forms. As the demand grows for smaller and smaller precision metal parts, it is clear that the world is going to need a new generation of expert four-slide, multi-slide, and punch press operators.  That’s why we got involved with the IllinoisWorkNet program. The program, which was launched by the Illinois Workforce Investment Board (IWIB), was created to help businesses like Keats connect with and develop Illinois’ workforce. 

In our case, we chose two outstanding candidates from Wheeling High School to participate in a 6-week internship program. The students from Wheeling High attended a job fair where they ranked the companies and the companies ranked the kids, and a matching process ensued. After careful consideration, we chose our two interns who showed both a proficiency in math and computer sciences and an interest in a career with Keats.

After both students successfully served their internships, we decided to hire them on full-time! They’ve both started in the quality control department and are making strides toward becoming key parts of the Keats family. In future blogs we will keep you updated on their progress, as they move up the ladder at Keats. 

Programs like Illinois Workforce are not only the key to the future of companies like Keats, but also the key to the future of our country. If we are truly committed to a manufacturing renaissance in the U.S. then we have to reach out to the new generation and show them how exciting and profitable our work can be.

If you want to learn more about or even participate in the Illinois Workforce program please visit their website. If you don’t live in Illinois, go to the Department of Labor’s website and find a program in your area. 

Capitalizing on the Future

What comes to mind when you think of Mexico? Most of us probably know Mexico for its great food, beaches, and thousands of years of culture. However, back in the early 1990s Keats saw in Mexico an opportunity to serve the underappreciated maquiladora assembly market.  

In Spanish, maquiladora refers to the practice of millers charging a maquila, or “miller’s portion” for processing other people’s grain. More recently, it has come to define manufacturing operations in Mexico’s free trade zones.  Thanks to NAFTA, there are now almost half a million Mexicans working in over 3,000 maquiladoras. This market is an excellent source of high quality labor for many different industrial sectors including automotive parts and supplies, telecommunications equipment, and medical supplies.  At Keats, we saw that with the growth of maquiladoras there would be an ever-increasing need for superior metal stampings, wireforms, and assemblies. So on August 1^st of 1994, only a few months after NAFTA took effect, we opened Keats Southwest (KSW) in the vibrant border town of El Paso, Texas.  

This new location served multiple purposes. First, it directly served our Mexican neighbor, Ciudad Juárez. This booming sister city to El Paso also happens to be home to more than 300, or 10%, of Mexico’s maquiladoras. Second, it allowed Keats to supply not only all of Mexico, but also the entire southwestern United States.

Eighteen years after we took the bold step to move into the maquiladora market, Keats Southwest is now a 24-hour a day, 5 day a week operation. We have 45 dedicated and highly skilled employees who manufacture a wide range of products on 36 state-of-the-art four-slide and multi-slide machines, and 11 metal stamping presses.  During our time serving the region, Keats Southwest has worked on some exciting projects, including designing and building fuel injection steelshields and reel to reel phosphor bronze terminals for the automotive industry in Mexico.

Our success in predicting and capitalizing on future manufacturing trends has only just begun. As the world’s economy grows and shifts, Keats is prepared to utilize its practical understanding of foreign markets and its over 50 years of experience to stay ahead of the curve.