SITUATION
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- Union Stamping & Assembly (US&A) is an Ohio corporation formed
to acquire the South Charleston business of Mayflower Corporation. Supplying
metal stampings and assemblies to automobile and truck manufacturers. The
operations employed 460 with annual sales of approximately $100 million.
- US&A,
implemented a series of cost-cutting and revenue-enhancing steps. Those
steps included head count & cost reductions, debt service relief
and new business from new and current customers
- However; even with improved
operating strength the company’s hourly
workers voted against entering into discussions to modify the current labor
agreement to address wage and benefit costs to increased the business’s
competiveness. The company’s lender refused to provide continuing
support . Finally, the company was unsuccessful in obtaining commitments
for meaningful new business from its largest customers, General Motors
and Freightliner
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RESULTS
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- Union Partners transformed the company during the first year and achieved
positive EBITDA for the fiscal year
- US&A announces primary focus to
be on safety, quality and training and joined GM’s top focus program
re-certified TS 16949
- Given the unwillingness of US&A’s stakeholders
to pitch- in, the company decided to liquidate the business assets and
protect the shareholders capital investment.
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ACTION TAKEN
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- Union Partners Teamed with management and implemented an aggressive
transformation program focusing on accomplishing three priorities:
–
Near-term
Liquidity Strategy to generate positive
free cash flow
– Sales Initiative to regain a revenue growth position
concurrent with
rolling out a new company name
(Union Stamping & Assembly) and identity
– Plant Operational Excellence Initiative implementing
stamping and plant
management best practices
to ensure customer responsiveness, product conformity,
manufacturing efficiency and competitive costs
- Staff was
evaluated, trained and redeployed to capitalize on employee strengths and
eliminate redundancy
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