Photos and story by Monty Siekerman
This company has been in Ada for 24 years. It has 11 employees working in a facility with 25,800 square. Know it?
The North American Stamping Group is located at 605 E. Montford, in Grass Run Industrial Park.
In Ada, the company began as City Tool and Die in 1992, which was bought by Universal Engineering in 1996, which was bought by NASG in 2002.
Locally, Gary Wicker of Waynesfield has been operations manager for 15 years. He has been with the company 36 years.
The Ada facility uses roll steel to manufacture brakes and seating for heavy duty trucks.
Employment here reached a maximum of 20 associates early in the decade, then the auto recession hit, and the workforce reduced. It has remained at about 11 employees consistently for the past five or six years.
Overall, the company has eight facilities in Canada, United States and Mexico. Each company is separately incorporated and run as a stand alone unit.
There about 900 employees and annual sales of $300 million.
A large expansion of the Mexico facility was announced in June.
The organization has been profitable through the years and debt levels are low. Group stamping sales have increased 18% annually for the last three years.
Automakers sold 17.5 million vehicles in 2015, besting the next biggest year, 2001, by 68,000 vehicles.
The just-concluded, record-setting sales year was due to several factors: low gas prices, cheap credit, low unemployment, strong consumer confidence, and warm weather.
PHOTO BELOW: Matt McKinley, production associate, with NASG for 11 years.
