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!