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Episode 16: Christmas 2023
25 Plays1 year ago
Merry Christmas! Thank you to our great team and all of the wonderful people we have the great fortune to work with. We appreciate all of you.
Here is looking forward to the great things we will do in 2024!
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Transcript
Introduction and Christmas Greetings
00:00:12
Speaker
All right. And welcome back to the shop talk podcast. This is episode 16, our Christmas 2023 episode. This definitely is not the third time I'm trying to record this. Definitely not.
00:00:28
Speaker
but you know it is. This is going to be a brief episode, a little bit different than most of our usual stuff.
Team Appreciation and Work Environment
00:00:35
Speaker
Just wanted to quickly come on and first and foremost say Merry Christmas to all of our great team at HFW, any of our customers or vendors that are listening as well. We're super appreciative for everyone that works in and around our business.
00:00:50
Speaker
We have a fantastic team that really is an honor to get to work with every day. I'm always so blown away by just the variety and the skill of the people we have at HFW. I love coming to work every day. It's my goal to help foster that feeling in everyone at HFW, and I'm very
Year-End Review and 2024 Outlook
00:01:11
Speaker
appreciative.
00:01:11
Speaker
So first and foremost, Merry Christmas. I hope everyone has a great time off with their spending time with their friends and family, comes back rested and excited for the great things that we're going to do in 2024. And so the second part of this podcast is talking about, you know, kind of using this as a year in review or year end type podcast.
00:01:32
Speaker
Going over a lot of the stuff actually that was covered in the newsletter. And if you haven't gotten the newsletter yet, ask Trish or Dana or myself and we can get you a copy of one. It kind of highlights a lot of what happened this year, what we're looking forward to in 2024. So I guess I'll just kind of start from the top. Sales-wise, this year there was
00:01:57
Speaker
A lot of uncertainty coming into the year, what this year would look like. Some of that played out. The summer got pretty slow. We thought things were slowing in the economy and in the market. But actually our numbers are going to end up being pretty similar, right on pace with last year, which was a good year.
00:02:15
Speaker
It looks like, again, 2024, some of our customers anticipate slowing down. But then other customers are very busy. So as with most things, I think the reality will be in between the two extremes. And HFW, I think one of the great things about our business is
00:02:37
Speaker
the diversity of customer we have.
Exploring New Opportunities and Growth
00:02:40
Speaker
So we're not highly dependent on one customer, one particular industry, and we're able to navigate things like this quite well. It is exciting too. We are looking at a couple new customers and a couple new or larger presences of certain industries. This is something that we're looking at over the next five to seven year time horizon.
00:03:06
Speaker
So not something that's going to happen overnight, but something that could mean a lot of opportunity and potential for HFW. So this is something that we're looking at from the sales front. So looks like this year, well, 2023 ended up being pretty strong year in the sales front. Looks like 2024.
00:03:29
Speaker
Well, I guess we're already pretty booked in the couple first months of 2024. Looks right now like things will be decent, but it remains to be seen, of course.
00:03:41
Speaker
In the shop, obviously got a lot of young guys and a lot of people that are newer in their journey, which I'll get into when we talk about some of the great people we brought onto the team this year. So rework and trying to build up our learning is certainly something that's a focus in 2024, focusing on productivity.
00:04:02
Speaker
and how we can make the most of limited resources. We're really gonna put a focus on helping everyone do the best job they can and make sure that we're meeting our hours or beating them if possible.
Process Improvement Initiatives
00:04:22
Speaker
And just really looking to get better in every facet of our business. That's something that's always been a strong suit of HFW and is certainly gonna be continuing in 2024.
00:04:32
Speaker
We have a couple fun initiatives, or I shouldn't say necessarily fun, but initiatives that I think are really going to drive some real improvements in our business, things that will help us grow and allow everyone to be very focused and not worry about the minutia, really focus everyone on the core couple things that will drive the success of us personally and the business as a whole. And I think they'll be exciting.
00:05:01
Speaker
This is not going to be an extra burden. It's not just a fad or the leadership tip of the day or anything. We're really trying to streamline some things and implementing traction and EOS, which is something I'll be detailing further in a future episode.
Employee Highlights and Milestones
00:05:20
Speaker
But really, we're looking at some initiatives that I think will make everyone's life better at HFW and I think will be the foundation for future growth in the company as well.
00:05:30
Speaker
So that's really exciting. And I think, again, I think this is something that everyone should look forward to because I think everyone will benefit from it.
00:05:39
Speaker
So I talked a little bit about some of the new additions to HFW. We had quite a few this year, added 12 people to the company in various positions. So we added Peter Sanciaro in CNC machining, Devon France in marketing,
00:06:00
Speaker
Wilfredo Vega Cruz, uh, in our janitorial department. We had added Andrew masters and CNC, John Buerk and our mechanic and assembly department, Anthony Circoni and the CNC department, Brandon Campanelli and shipping. Jayden Coletta. Uh, we added him as a machinist. We kind of, he's kind of been all around as we found out in episode 15, last episode.
00:06:31
Speaker
Patricia Daniel-Witts is our shop office coordinator and assistant to the supervisor. She took on the role after Lynn retired after 28 years in the business. So that was exciting for Lynn this past year, after 28 years celebrating a well-deserved retirement.
00:06:53
Speaker
Connor Deets coming on as a machinist like Jayden. He's kind of been all around and a great value player and a guy who's incredibly smart. Chuck Parker in the CNC department and Ronnie Johnson in shipping. So again, 12 people overall, you know, really great group of people here. And I think that each and every person has a bright, bright future in this business. So we're excited about that.
00:07:22
Speaker
So thank you to everyone. We're excited to have you guys. And on the flip side, we have a bunch of milestone service anniversaries that I think are are important to touch on. So we'll start from the bottom and work our way up, starting at five years of service with Sam Cappy and John Westendorf. Thank you, guys. You know, really enjoy working with the two of you. You guys are guys do good work and we're appreciative for what you do.
00:07:50
Speaker
Zelco celebrating 10 years. Zelco really needs no introduction, just a great old school machinist guy who knows so much. He's probably forgotten so much of it because he just continually is churning out some extremely high quality work.
00:08:12
Speaker
ZELCO is that old school machinist mindset. That's really hard to find, but that's why I've got some young guys to hopefully glean a thing or two off of ZELCO.
00:08:23
Speaker
Bob Russ celebrating 15 years. Bob is like a lot of people at HFW. Uh, well, first and foremost, he's funny. Um, so that, that is like a lot of people in and around the business. Um, but he's also been a utility player. So he started in the shop and then now I was up in our engineering office doing a lot of great work and, um, we're deeply appreciative for all the things that Bob does to make this business great.
00:08:48
Speaker
And then last but not least, at 55 years is my grandfather, John Watson, who's also our president. Yeah, there's really not, I mean, it kind of speaks for itself in a way. My grandfather is just someone I look up to so much and I think it's pretty apparent the great things he's done for this business and to do it for 55 years is nothing short of incredible.
00:09:17
Speaker
They'll tell you he's got a bunch of years left and I'm excited to work alongside him to build a great business. So thank you, grandpa. And then I could not forget a couple of great promotions we've had this year. So Mark Patronsky and Bob Luns were both promoted to the lead man position. Mark in the CNC lathe or turning area and Bob in the large cylindrical grinding department.
00:09:46
Speaker
So those are exciting promotions for two guys that are some of the most knowledgeable in the shop. They have a combined 47 years of service at HFW in addition to the years of experience they had coming into HFW.
Team Events and Traditions
00:10:03
Speaker
And so we're really appreciative. Two of our great guys in the shop that are huge in not only producing and maintaining the HFW's superb reputation with our customers, but also training and mentoring the next generation of incredible machinists as well. So thank you, Bob and Mark.
00:10:27
Speaker
And we had a bunch of fun events this year too. So I just wanted to briefly touch on those. Um, started with the Sabres game early this year that we are looking to hopefully do again, um, with the team's recent performance. Those tickets might be cheap this year. So I guess on one hand, that's a good thing, but you also want to see them win. So, um, I won't talk about the Sabres more cause I could go on for a long time.
00:10:54
Speaker
I had the ride for Roswell this year, hoping to turn that into an annual tradition at HFW. Raised a bunch of money for a good cause and also got to have a fun time with a bunch of the guys from the shop and in the office. And it was really great. So we really appreciate everyone who participated and everyone who donated as well.
Acknowledgments and Closing Remarks
00:11:16
Speaker
Then we had a bunch of great events. We had our pancake breakfast that I
00:11:22
Speaker
Well, one of my favorites because I love any kind of breakfast food. So that was a fun event that I enjoyed a lot. Had our picnics and then retirees had their lunches. Got a great picture. I'm looking at this picture now in front of me with so many of the guys. We're talking hundreds of years of experience in this picture. The men who really have built this company into what it is and
00:11:47
Speaker
I'm so appreciative. Um, if any of you guys are listening, thank you for everything you've done to make HFW what it is. Um, I hope everything is good with all of you. Some of you guys I saw at our Christmas luncheon last week, um, which was kind of the event that I think caps off our year. Um, and it's, it's always good to see some familiar faces like Joe Fidario, John Gross, amongst a bunch of others. So thank you guys.
00:12:18
Speaker
And that's pretty much it. Like I said, just a shorter episode, um, wanted to thank everyone as always. I really appreciate everyone's hard work and effort to making HFW a great business. Hope everyone has a very safe, relaxing and happy holiday season. And I look forward to a great 2024. Thanks.