Cited for innovation, diversification and community service on behalf of poverty-reduction initiatives,
Great Lakes Stainless Steel Inc. won the 2010
Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce Hagerty Small Business of the Year award.
"It was total shock," says president Terry Berden, among 10 finalists out of 200 nominees for the coveted award. He launched Great Lakes Refrigeration in 1976, then spun off Great Lakes Stainless in 1995. "If you can design it, we can build it" is Berden's mantra: commercial and institutional foodservice equipment, residential kitchens, medical lab and operating room doors and cabinetry, green heating systems with bacteria-killing lights for schools, even some eco-cool equipment for the wine industry that he is working on with local vintner Ed O'Keefe of
Chateau Grand Traverse.
Great Lakes Stainless moved to its current 50,000-sq.-ft. facility seven years ago. It's equipped with the latest CAD/CAM engineering design system with programmable CNC machinery for producing precision-crafted stainless equipment in volume. The company's artisans also tackle intricate, one-of-a-kind projects using traditional and high-tech methods.
Berden says Great Lakes Stainless sales are around $6 million annually, and currently 49 employees work at the company. He sees all of that accelerating in the near term: "Right now we're picking up a lot of small jobs -- we might add five to 40 over the next year or two."
Writer: Patty LaNoue Stearns
Sources: Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce, Terry Berden
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