Our Customer-Centric Approach to Growth

When you hear the word “acquisition”, what first comes to mind? Acquisitions have become increasingly common in the manufacturing industry, and sometimes the term acquisition can conjure negative imagery, like a private equity firm gobbling up small companies and stripping them for parts.

At GTR Manufacturing, though, we view acquisition in a different light. To us, acquisition means choosing a company with the same values, that is healthy, strong, and developing a good product for their customers, and adding that company to the GTR family. Of course, we are referring to GTR’s recent acquisition of Sweeney Metal Fabricators.

A Growth Mindset

So what was the impetus for GTR Manufacturing to pursue an acquisition? Simply put: we are growing! In fact, we’ve grown our revenue by over 40% over the course of 10 years – a feat we are very proud of!

Growth provides stability, not just for our employees, but also for our customers. Expanding our offerings and manufacturing capacity means that our customers can rely on us for even more of their custom metal fabrication needs than before. Growth allows us to better serve our customers by investing more in cutting-edge technologies and capabilities, as we did by founding our GTR ProtoPlus division in 2021. 

Acquiring Sweeney Metal Fabricators allowed us to expand our range of in-house offerings to include CNC milling and turning services. Providing comprehensive turnkey solutions allows us to be a one-stop shop for our customers, from prototype through to production. The addition of Sweeney Metal Fabricators into the GTR Manufacturing family also provided us with another 22,000 sq ft of manufacturing space to grow into over the coming years.

Cut From the Same Cloth

When it came time to pursue an acquisition, how did we go about finding the right company to partner with? Our goal was to find a shop with deep expertise in both sheet metal fabrication and CNC milling and turning, and we found that in spades with Sweeney Metal Fabricators. But what we found beyond their technical capabilities was a shared set of values: an emphasis on quality, a strong work ethic, a commitment to customer service, and a family culture within the shop.

GTR Manufacturing has always been a family business. The company’s current leaders grew up in the shop that their fathers founded over 50 years ago. In the early days, the entire shop would go camping as a group and throw parties in the summer. We keep that spirit alive today with our annual cookouts, golf tournaments, and holiday parties. When we found Sweeney Metal Fabricators, we knew they were cut from the same cloth. Chris Sweeney also grew up in his father’s shop, learning metal fabrication from the best and passing those lessons on to his own team. The shared mindset and customer-centric approach to business meant that this was more than an acquisition – it was an expansion of the GTR family.

Maintaining Our High Standards

We are excited about the future at GTR Manufacturing and we look forward to serving both our current and future customers with the personalized service we take pride in. If you’d like to learn more about what the team at GTR Manufacturing can do for you, don’t hesitate to contact us! Whether you’re looking for sheet metal prototyping services, custom sheet metal fabrication involving complex enclosures or box build assembly service, and more – we are your trusted single-source precision manufacturing solution.