Peters’ Heat Treating: Strategic Planning for Family Business Growth

Peters’ Heat Treating:

Strategic Planning for Family Business Growth

Since 1979, now in their second generation, Peters’ Heat Treating has been one of the leaders in the precision parts heat treating industry. The company serves customers ranging from small shops to large corporations in all industries from automotive to nuclear. Currently, there are 3 locations with approximately 60 employees.

Pictured: Peters Family (owners, L-R); Doug Peters, Jackie Peters, Andy Wilkosz, and Diana (Peters) Wilkosz

The Challenge

The company has been following a strategic planning process since 2001 with a three-year timeframe. The consultant who facilitated the process in the past has retired and a contracted plan had not been developed since 2015. The owners’ daughter and son-in-law returned to the area in 2015 to begin a succession process.

While Peters’ Heat Treating has exceeded the goal of 5% sales growth over the past two years, maintaining an increase in sales with an anticipated downturn in the industry in 2020 is a concern. As the company continues to grow both in sales and workforce, it becomes increasingly important to do strategic planning in order to have action items to safeguard growth and mitigate risk. Strategic planning helps to define goals for Customer Growth, Sales Growth and Employee Productivity.
The Solution

In order to address critical issues and to position the company to achieve its aggressive business growth goals, an NWIRC Strategic Business Advisor/Employee Development Specialist led a team from the company to conduct a SWOT Analysis, enhance the strategic plan with a vision towards 2021, improve employee engagement, review and aid in updating the mission and values of the business, and identify items that may require risk assessments for ISO certification. The project included individual interviews with employees, an anonymous employee electronic survey, meetings with management to conduct SWOT analysis, review financials and more.

A strategic planning document was delivered containing a 3-year plan including goals, strategic objectives, and action plans to be implemented. Supporting documentation of interview and survey results and SWOT results were included with the final report.

Client Success

Peters’ now has 3-year plan to, not only increase sales, but also to improve customer diversity and productivity. The owners continue to implement a succession plan while at the same time are focused on overall growth of the company. The Strategic Plan for Vision 2021 includes action programs to meet or exceed the company’s goal of a 5% sales growth year over year, as well as a 2.5% growth in productivity each year. “While our management team at Peters’ Heat Treating, Inc. has always been actively committed to updating strategic plans, we find it extremely important for an outside consultant to investigate and analyze our business to ensure that we are realistic with our vision and goals,” said Diana (Peters) Wilkosz, Vice President of Administration. “The project with NWIRC was seamless and the deliverable met all expectations. We look forward to working with them in future years to assist in our continued business success.”

Read the full Peters’ Heat Treating story.