“When my sister and I were children, on Saturday mornings my dad would take us with him while he worked for half a day to give mom a break,” Treiber said. “We’d go in his office while he worked, and then he’d walk us around, holding our hands.”
Then in high school, Treiber worked at the family business during summer vacations, mostly in the shipping department, but also doing a considerable amount of heavy duty cleaning. That time at CWM gave him the opportunity to meet good people, he says, some with whom he still works today.
“Our vice-president of manufacturing started when he was 16 years old, and he’s been working here 45 years,” Treiber said.
After high school, Treiber then went off to college at the University of Illinois at Champaign, and after graduating in 1985, headed to the East Coast for a job, but ended up starting a restaurant on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
“We were wildly successful, an exciting time, I’m so happy we had the experience,” Treiber said. But all along, his dad would send him newspaper clippings about manufacturing. “In his way, he was subtly trying to see if I was interested in returning and working at Chicago White Metal.”
Four and a half years later, Treiber, his wife and two children moved back to the Chicago area, and he started to work with his dad, moving the business into the third Treiber generation.
Eric’s grandfather, Walter G. Treiber, was born in Germany and came to America in 1920. He was a metal craftsman, making tools and then tool parts, as well as brass and bronze castings. The elder Trieber specialized in doorknocker pieces in those early years, before he began making castings.
In the early 1940s, Eric’s grandmother financed her husband’s $500 purchase of a Madison-Kipp die-casting machine. In the 1950s, the company expanded their facility on Chicago’s northwest side, and Eric’s father, Walter Treiber Jr, joined the company in 1959. He continues today as CWM’s chairman.
In addition to brass, bronze, zinc and aluminum castings, CWM began producing magnesium castings in the 1980s. Now, with an array of die castings available to its customers, CWM employs 300.
“Our customer base and our market base are both highly diversified, and we’ve planned it to be that way to keep the business growing,” Treiber said.
“Four, five, six years ago, automotive production was in the tank. Automotive is an important part of our business, but it’s a small part. So we were not hurt that much when a lot of the die-casting community in 2009, for example, was down 30, 40, 50, 60, even 70 percent,” he said. “Our business was down only 15 percent in 2009. That was unheard of then.”
CWM has expanded into the medical and dental industries, as well as digital projection and other global industries.
“This culture that we’ve created at Chicago White Metal is very important,” Treiber said. “On time delivery, great quality is very important, they’re a given. If you’re not doing those things, then you can forget about everything else.”
The CWM team’s attitude and respect for the clients is important.
“Failing to live up to commitments is not acceptable,” Treiber said. “With a team that feels compassion and brings to work a positive attitude, we feel we’re unstoppable.”
As with other manufacturers, Trieber says health care costs are a huge issue, as are worker’s compensation insurance and labor costs. The company has adjusted to work they used to do with cell phones and laptops moving overseas, but have worked hard to recreate their plant for manufacturing other products in demand, such as the aluminum bows for crossbows, as well as the housings that go under the glass for cashiers’ bar code scanners.
“There’s over 25 castings in your dentist office that we’ve had a part in making,” Treiber said.
Heading a sizable family-owned business like Chicago White Metal is a challenge, but it’s also rewarding for Treiber.
“Once a motivational speaker challenged me to ask myself why I do what I do,” he said. “You’d think it would be a really easy question, but it took me a long time to come up with an answer. I came up with three or four things.”
Then he asked his team at CWM their reasons why they do what they do. Treiber says he was pleased when the members’ answers lined up with his – before he shared his thoughts with them.
“In the end, my reason was to further the growth, development and education in others’ lives,” he said. “And that was almost exactly the same thing the team said.”
Treiber says he hopes Chicago White Castings will move into a fourth generation, but he’s not pressuring either of his young adult children to get in.
“I didn’t start here until I was 27, they’ve got lots of time to decide what they want to do. We’ve got a great team here, and I think we’ll continue to be successful at Chicago White Metal.”
CWM is located at 649 N. Route 83 in Bensenville, Illinois or on the web at www.cwmdiecast.com .
By TMA News Editor Fran Eaton – June 201
