solid power for life - Charles Industries, Ltd.

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people who have retired at 80 years old,” Joe
says. “Better than 60 percent of our employees
have been with the company for more than five
years. It’s a unique thing. We don’t run it like a
family business, but it’s a family business in the
way we treat people.”
Not that Joe’s motives are entirely altruistic.
For a manufacturer, there’s much to be gained
from a presence in small-town America. A plant
in downstate Illinois is less expensive to operate
than a plant in Chicago, and as a big fish in a
little pond, it carries more clout. “We could
build a plant in downtown New York or
Chicago, and no one would even know we’re
there,” Joe says. “We could come and go and no
one would even miss us.”
In small towns, there’s less red tape to cut
through and few political battles to fight. When
Charles Industries needs something—a road in
front of the plant, say, or a sprinkler system for
insurance purposes—it’s usually just a matter
of asking. “You go to the community, and the
next thing you know, the community gets an
“Our culture has a sense of urgency. Our
culture is filling a need. Putting out a quality
product is really the reward.”
industrial revenue bond and puts up a water
tower,” Joe says. “Those are the kinds of things
that happen.”
In these days of widespread corporate outsourcing,
it takes a special kind of company to
keep its manufacturing within U.S. borders.
Among manufacturers of marine battery chargers,
Charles Industries is unique in this sense,
and it’s a source of great pride for the company.
Granted, Charles’ products incorporate some
components made offshore, things like capacitors
and resistors that just aren’t made in the
United States anymore. “You can’t do much
about that,” Joe says. “But we do make our own
transformers locally. We do our own fabrication.”
That in itself sets Charles Industries apart
from the competition.
It’s tempting to think a manufacturer can
only compete nowadays by jumping on the outsourcing
bandwagon. As a savvy businessman,
Joe wouldn’t rule it out if he felt it was the best
way to deliver a quality product at a competitive
price. In fact, he did give it a whirl, but he was
unsatisfied with the results. At times, he has had
plants in the Philippines, Haiti and Mexico, but
eventually he brought everything back to the
United States. The “Made in the U.S.A.” credo
fits better with his personal conviction of supporting
small local communities, and he likes
small-town America’s work ethic. Moreover, it
makes good business sense. There’s something to
be said for keeping operations close to home.
“From a productivity standpoint, if you automate,
and you set your lines up right, you can be
competitive,” Joe says. “You might be amazed to
come through some of our plants and see how
automated we are. That’s where you make up the
difference.” When he moved operations from
Mexico to Casey, Illinois, for example, Joe paid
higher wages, but he had two people doing what
six workers were doing before. “It’s all about
productivity, laying lines out, automating,”
he explains. “The trick in the manufacturing
business it to get from point A to point B as
fast as you can. Not to see how many people you
can hire.”
For the end consumer, it adds up to a better
quality product, Lyle explains. “Typically, if
you’re dealing with an overseas company, they’ll
give you a great price, and they’ll probably give
you a great product for six months. Then you
start seeing the degradation of the specification.”
If someone has an idea for improving a product
or enhancing it with a new feature, it can be slow
and costly to implement those changes at an
overseas plant. “The ideal situation is being able
to engineer your own product, market your own
product and manufacture your own product, all
while having total control,” Lyle says.
Total control is exactly what Charles
Industries has over its manufacturing. Joe and his
management team make frequent visits to their
plants. They’re intimately involved with the dayto-day
operations, and plant employees can see
their impact on the company’s output. At each
plant, up-to-the-minute information is posted
about product orders in each company division.
Everyone knows what’s being shipped each day.
They’re aware of annual volume, and if there’s an
issue with a customer, they know about that, too;
they’ll invite customers directly to the plant to
work out a problem.
“These people all know the company mission,
and the quality is reflected in that type of
culture,” Joe says. “Our culture has a sense of
urgency. Our culture is filling a need. Putting
out a quality product is really the reward. That’s
what helps the business grow.”
Employees aren’t just punching the clock.
They’re part of a process, and that gives them
pride in the work they do and the products they
manufacture. That’s rare in the manufacturing
business, where workers often assemble products
without knowing what they’re used for or who
the customer is. “We try to get our people
involved,” Joe says. “As long as you keep them
involved, they know what they do and why they
do it. They have a much different attitude about
the pride that they take in creating the product.”
Customers can see this attitude firsthand.
When they open a battery charger box, they’ll
find a note from the person who actually inspected
it. Clearly, this is a product that came from
the corn belt, not from the other side of the
world. And in case there’s any doubt, it comes in
a white box marked “Made in the U.S.A.” and
emblazoned with an American flag.
Joe exudes enthusiasm about his company.
This enthusiasm—as well as pride in his country
and in his employees—shows up in everything
that Charles Industries manufactures. “We’re just
excited about what we do,” Joe says. “It’s contagious.
If you’re excited, you get people excited.
And if you get the product out the door, and the
product is good, you get customers back and
business grows. It just has that domino effect on
everybody.”
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