Urban Manufacturing, Inc.
Urban Manufacturing, Inc. – Pewaukee, WI
Located 30 miles west of Milwaukee in Pewaukee, WI, Urban Manufacturing, Inc. builds precision parts for some of the nation’s leading manufacturers, including GE and Harley Davidson. Founded in 1978 by Alex Urbanchek, the family-owned company has grown to over 130 people today and employs skilled machine operators, assembly and fulfillment personnel, and production support staff.
Urban Manufacturing does almost $30 million in annual sales, delivering custom metal parts for the motorcycle, automotive, medical, and power sectors. The company prides itself on working closely with customers throughout design, prototyping, and manufacturing phases, and is proud to have the ability to deliver final products that are packaged as shelf-ready for sale.
Because Urban Manufacturing produces components of products that are exported to markets around the word, the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank is critical to its business. “Our three largest customers sell products overseas,” says Todd Stigler, Project Manager at Urban Manufacturing. “If these customers don’t have financing to fulfill export orders, the parts we make would be made overseas instead. That means jobs here in Wisconsin will be lost.”
Urban Manufacturing’s workforce is part of its DNA and loyalty is a core value in the company. Eighty percent of the journeymen machinists trained in the apprenticeship program stay with the company. Over twenty employees have been with the company for 15 years or longer. And, the company has never laid off any of its workers. Urban Manufacturing doesn’t want any of this to change. But, if the Ex-Im Bank shuts down, the company may have to make hard decisions.