Celebrating 50 Years as a Single-Source Precision Sheet Metal Shop

October 16, 2023

Meet GTR Manufacturing—your single-source precision manufacturing solution. 

Across 104,000 square feet of manufacturing space, our sheet metal shop provides a full spectrum of manufacturing capabilities, from rapid sheet metal prototyping to metal coating and finishing. And we’re still growing.

We’ve proudly been the premier partner for comprehensive custom sheet metal fabrication for over five decades. As we celebrate our 50th year in business, we’re taking time to reflect on our journey.

A History of Growth

Single-source shop GTR began as a small, family-owned business operating out of a 5,000-square-foot shop. Our name represents the surnames of GTR’s three founders: Fran Godfrey, Ray Timmons, and Rudy Reed.

Our company grew rapidly from our humble beginnings. By 1985, we’d built a 52,000-square-foot facility and added finishing capabilities to our extensive manufacturing services. We continued to expand over the following 15 years, adding electromechanical assembly capabilities and another 22,000 square feet to consolidate our sheet metal shop under one roof.

In 2000, the founders handed the business to the next generation of leadership: Jim Craig, Corrine King, and Bill Klaila. (We kept the name GTR—CKK just didn’t have the same ring to it.)

The next generation

Under new leadership, GTR continued to lead the precision sheet metal industry. Customers from small business start-ups to Fortune 500 companies chose us for our fully integrated capabilities—but we knew we could do more.

In 2021, we founded GTR ProtoPlus to manufacture more precision sheet metal prototypes and provide rapid prototyping services. In 2023, we acquired Sweeney Metal Fabricators to increase our precision machining capabilities. With these two new developments, our three shops exceed 100,000 square feet and employ 175 crew members. 

Our Precision Manufacturing Capabilities

As your single-source manufacturing solution, GTR possesses end-to-end capabilities to take most projects through the manufacturing process from start to finish. In fact, we challenge you to find a project we can’t.

Across our three shops, we offer:

GTR’s three facilities

  • GTR Manufacturing is our central production facility that offers complete precision sheet metal fabrication with painting and powder coating capabilities.
  • GTR ProtoPlus is our sister company, specializing in quick-turn manufacturing and electromechanical assembly for cables, harnesses, and complete box builds.
  • Sweeney Metal Fabricators is our newest shop, focusing on low-volume sheet metal fabrication and machining capabilities.

Advantages of a single-source solution

When you partner with GTR, you reap the benefits of working with a single-source sheet metal shop: simplified purchase orders, quality assurance backed by decades of experience, and timely delivery.

The Values Behind the Quality

GTR’s success and rapid expansion over the past 50 years would not be possible without our foundational core values guiding us:

  • Passion for the work we produce and the purpose parts serve.
  • Innovation that leads to radical transformation.
  • Quality that is embedded in every step of our process, from machining to solving customer problems.
  • Integrity in our actions as we remain honest and ethical while seeking optimal results.
  • Transparency about performance, pricing, operations, and values.
  • Customer experience as we exceed expectations and build long-term partnerships.

These core values ensure employee satisfaction, high-quality parts, and exceptional customer service. GTR has built an excellent reputation as a trusted precision sheet metal partner over the past 50 years by upholding integrity and transparency in every customer interaction—and you can expect that from us in the next 50 years, too. 

Get a Quote to experience our premier single-source service.