A pair of businesses received awards at the Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce’s second annual Manufacturing Excellence Awards held on Tuesday, October 17. The Chamber honored manufacturers that have demonstrated excellence in their practice at the event held at the Stoney Creek Hotel & Conference Center in Rothschild.

Linetec received the 2017 Manufacturing Excellence Award in the large manufacturer category and J & D Tube Benders Inc received the award in the small to medium manufacturer category. The large manufacturer category included those businesses with more than 300 employees, while the small to medium manufacturer category included businesses with less than 300 employees.

“Linetec feels very honored to receive this award, especially considering the number of distinguished manufacturers that are based in the Wausau area,” said Rick Marshall, President of Linetec. “We would like to thank the 570 employees of our company. They are the ones that drive our positive culture and our core values, enabling Linetec to perform well and consistently for our customers.”

“J & D Tube Benders would like to thank the Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce for recognizing our company as the recipient for 2017.” said Tom Felch, President/Owner of J & D Tube Benders Inc. “It truly is an honor to be recognized for this award. The efforts of all of our employees is what makes our company what it is today. We encourage involvement from our employees at work, as well as in the community that we operate in. Our management team believes our responsibility reaches far outside the walls of our building.”

Roxanne Baumann, Director of Global Engagement with the Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership, was the keynote speaker at the event.

WSAW/WZAW’s Jeff Thelen served as the master of ceremonies for the event.

The event was part of the Chamber’s celebration of Manufacturing Month. The recipients displayed excellence in contributing to the growth in the region’s economy, operations, innovation, workplace culture, quality jobs, supply chain management and commitment to the region.

The finalists were:

Small to medium manufacturers (1 – 299 employees):
AROW Global Inc
FreMarq Innovations Inc
J & D Tube Benders Inc
Wilson-Hurd A Division of Nelson-Miller

Large manufacturers (300+ employees):
County Materials Corporation
Domtar Paper Co LLC
Linetec

Customodal was the presenting sponsor for the event. The platinum sponsors were Ellis Construction and Ruder Ware LLSC, the gold sponsors were Marshfield Clinic Inc, River Valley Bank and Wipfli LLP, the silver sponsors were Greenheck, M3 Insurance, MBE CPAs and MCDEVCO Inc and the bronze sponsors were The Boson Company Inc, The Dirks Group LLC, Newmark Grubb Pfefferle, REI Engineering Inc and RMM Solutions Inc. WSAW/WZAW was the media sponsor and US Workstories was the video sponsor.

Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Meats and Greenheck received the award in 2016 in the small to medium and large categories respectively.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) encourages manufacturing employers to host tours as October is Manufacturing Month in Wisconsin. For more information on statewide events, visit wmc.org.