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Updated: October 28, 2019 / 2019 Family Business Awards Honorees

CT Spring & Stamping Corp.’s family focus engenders employee loyalty

Steve Dicke is president of Connecticut Spring & Stamping Corp. (Right) A historic photo of Founder Bertram Youmans and current CEO Peter Youmans.
By Matthew Broderick

 

1st Place — 76-plus full-time employees category

When Larry Minor retired in Sept. 2017, he reached an employee-loyalty milestone few people achieve: 50 years of service to his employer.

However, at Farmington-based Connecticut Spring & Stamping Corp. (CSS) — a family owned, advanced-manufacturing supplier for industry giants including Pfizer, Lockheed Martin and Gillette — Minor is hardly an outlier.

In fact, since 2000, more than 12 employees have celebrated a half-century at CSS, which was founded by the Youmans family in 1939, employs more than 400 people currently and generates $65 million in annual revenue.

“The Youmans family cared deeply for their employees,” Minor said. “And I felt that and gave 100 percent to the company.”

That sense of family is a big part of the culture at CSS, according to Steve Dicke, who was named the company’s president last year. But family is more than a buzzword at CSS; it’s frequently a reality.

Dicke’s father-in-law, Peter Youmans, is the company’s CEO, and wife, Veronica — a Youmans family member — works in marketing. Dicke’s nephew Jake recently joined the company, whose family focus has helped build employee loyalty.

“My father-in-law really set the standard,” Dicke explained. “He’s always had an open-door policy and employees could speak to him about business and personal issues, which made them feel like part of a family, not just a company.”

Even the company’s internal newsletter is more about employee news than the company’s.

“We feature recipes, pictures of employees’ pets, and [employee] events coming up,” Dicke said. “It’s more about personal things.”

It’s an approach and a culture that’s not only driven employee loyalty, but bottom-line results, too.

During Dicke’s nearly two decades with the company before ascending to his current role, CSS’ revenue has more than tripled. Today, the company, which employs 415 full-timers, works with more than 800 clients in 60 countries across a broad spectrum of industries, including medical surgical devices, defense and firearms, aerospace, automotive, drug delivery systems, consumer electronics and transportation.

That diversification has helped the company weather downturns in particular industries — Dicke notes, for instance, that growth in the gun industry, which uses CSS-manufactured parts, has slowed during the Trump administration.

The company’s growth has also been fueled by consistent investment, Dicke says, in new machinery, including a recent $1.7 million purchase of new equipment to expand manufacturing capabilities and quality.

While Dicke remains bullish about his company’s future — CSS has strong growth plans in medical markets and is eyeing acquisitions to expand its capabilities — he said there are headwinds from dual challenges: finding the next generation of advanced-manufacturing talent and navigating a competitive landscape from lower-tax states.

He says the state has helped subsidize apprenticeships at CSS, but more is needed.

“We are trying hard to find skilled or semi-skilled workers with technical skills or mechanical aptitude,” Dicke explained, noting the company has offered bonuses to attract the right candidates.

Connecticut Spring & Stamping has been fortunate, Dicke says, to have employees who have moved up within the company, but also brought relatives into the fold. It’s not uncommon to find multiple generations of families working across various departments at CSS, and many employees have met their spouse at the company.

The company’s employees-first philosophy around promotions has also helped it retain employees, Dicke says.

Return to HBJ’s 2019 Family Business Awards landing page

Connecticut Spring & Stamping Corp.

Headquarters: Farmington

Industry: Manufacturing

Year Founded: 1939

Founder: Bertram E. Youmans

Generation Currently Running Company: 2nd

No. of Full-Time Employees: 415

No. of Part-Time Employees: 10

Family Members Employed: Peter Youmans, CEO; Steve Dicke, President, Son-In-Law; Jake Youmans, Management Apprentice, Grandson; Veronica Dicke, Management Consultant, Daughter.

Company Website: https://www.ctspring.com/

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1 Comments

Anonymous
October 28, 2019

If I owned a company, it would be like this one...Peter Youmans ?

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