Adapting to a New World

Sunday, October 17, 2004
By Charley Hannagan
Staff writer
from the Post Standard

When its owners created it in 1920, the Selflock Nut and Bolt Co. was a high-technology business.

The company made a patented screw thread used by railroads and the automotive industry.

"It was a thread that when you torqued the nut and bolt together they wouldn't loosen up very easily," said David M. Freund, vice president operations at the company now called Selflock Screw Products Co. Inc.

Six years later, the company sold the patents to Bethlehem Steel, and Selflock Screw became a contract manufacturer making parts for other plants. It still does.

Over the years, the little company on Marcy Street in East Syracuse rode the coattails of its larger customers, such as Carrier Corp. But it failed to keep up with the times.

"Selflock never had a sales department and never had a marketing philosophy of any kind. We just simply existed," Freund said. "You can't do that in business anymore."

Business fell off after the 2001 terrorist attacks. Two years later, Carrier Corp., which represented 40 percent of Selflock Screw's business, announced the closure of its manufacturing plants in DeWitt.

"We really had to do some soul-searching and figure what we were as a company. What were our strengths, what were our weaknesses," Freund said.

At the urging of its independent board of directors, Selflock developed a business plan.

Selflock began to market its products. It developed a Web site. The sales department called on old customers and new ones. Sales have started to return, Freund said.

Through its prior relationships, the company won work making subassemblies for Carrier's repair parts division based in DeWitt, and at plants in Georgia and Tennessee.

Freund told Selflock's 26 employees that they must service the out-of-state plants so well it would feel as if the shop were just across the street.

The way to stand out against foreign competition is to provide exceptional service, Freund said.

"If we can help them do their business better, they'll pay us a little bit more for the part," he said.

Sales in 2003 were up 25 percent from the previous year at the privately held company. This year, the company forecasts another 15 percent sales increase, Freund said.

Recently, somebody from CSX asked Selflock to make a part used to repair tracks. If Selflock's samples work, it could lead to supplying all of CSX's tracks throughout the country, Freund said.

"I thought, how interesting," he said. "We started out as a railroad supply company, and now the railroad has come back."