Werk-Brau Co., a manufacturer of buckets and attachments for excavators and loaders, celebrated its 75th anniversary with an open house for employees and their families, retirees, customers, suppliers and colleagues, and the community on Saturday August 27. Visitors were able to tour the more than 500,000-square-foot manufacturing campus complex, see displays of Werk-Brau products and the equipment they are used with, and enjoy barbecue, refreshments, ice-cream, prize drawings, and more. Additional activities for younger visitors included bounce-houses, pony rides, and a train ride. Nearly 1000 people attended the event which ran from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
“We’re humbled and thankful that so many people chose to celebrate with us,” said Jon Ballinger, Werk-Brau president. “People make this company what it is, and we’ve been blessed with wonderful, dedicated employees over the years. It was great to host not only our current employees and their families, but many retirees and their families, as well as those within the Findlay community.”
The core vision upon which Werk-Brau was founded still drives the company today, officials said, adding that “safely provide excellence in quality, design, and delivery of products and services which exceed our customers’ expectations.” Wek-Brau has grown from a single blacksmith shop to numerous North American locations with 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space and more than 500 employees. The company maintains dealer direct partnerships with more than 2,000 North American heavy equipment dealers from its Findlay, Ohio, headquarters.
One aspect of the business that has changed dramatically is technology, which is helping customers to be more efficient, productive, and safe on their jobsites. Werk-Brau is proud to supply hydraulic D-LOCK couplers, tilt-rotator couplers, hydraulic thumbs, and a wide range of other specialty tools and construction attachments to assist in these efforts.
Technology also plays a much larger role in heavy equipment manufacturing than it did seven decades ago. Werk-Brau combines manufacturing technology such as robotics and high-definition plasma cutting, together with old-world craftsmanship into each bucket, thumb, coupler and attachment it manufactures. Its goals today are the same as they were when Duke Werkheiser and Dutch Brautigam opened their blacksmith shop in 1947, to provide excellence in customer service and exceed customer expectations.
Werk-Brau manufactures a complete line of OEM and replacement attachments for excavators, mini excavators, backhoes, mini and full-size loaders, and crawler loaders. Its products are made in the United States and sold through equipment dealers and distributors worldwide. For more information on Werk-Brau products, visit www.Werk-Brau.com.
