With new owner, Woodstock’s Dura-Bar aims to double revenue

WOODSTOCK – Inside the Charter Dura-Bar building along Route 14, workers wearing protective jackets and masks handle molten iron.

Eventually, the molten iron flows through a graphite die, where the iron turns into bars that are 6 or 12 feet long.

Workers are making continuous cast iron bar stock, which is then sold to businesses in the hydraulics, construction and automotive industries, among others. Since 2012, the Dura-Bar business has been operating as part of Charter Manufacturing Co., after the family business acquired Dura-Bar from Wells Manufacturing.

“From a Charter standpoint, we’re a fourth-generation family business; all of our manufacturing businesses are in primary metal industries,” said Peter Murray, vice president and general manager for Charter Dura-Bar. “We were looking for a new business that would be a platform to help grow the company. ... And [this] business, from a cultural standpoint, was good fit for our company.”

In 2012, Dura-Bar had 365 employees. By the end of 2014, it had 400 employees.

“The reality is this was a business Charter identified as a platform to grow,” Murray said. “This wasn’t a consolidation, it didn’t overlap with other businesses within Charter. It was truly a stand alone business that is unique and special and is the clear global leader in continuous cast iron and one that really seems to have great potential for growth.”

Since the purchase, Charter has invested about $7 million into Dura-Bar. Work has included safety improvements, and environmental initiatives among other things.

There was an investment in scrap detection equipment to make sure raw materials used are safe to use in the business’ process. There were air quality improvements to keep the dust level very low.

The company also is proud of its safety initiatives.

“We have a number of safety initiatives where we’ve upgraded pieces of equipment or added whole new pieces of equipment that have improved guarding detection capability, as much as possible to eliminate the potential for human contact with heavy equipment or product that could result in injury,” Murray said.

Charter hopes to have double the amount of revenues by 2018 from when it purchased Dura-Bar. Murray would not disclose revenue figures.

“We’ve been growing them pretty nicely since 2012 and really since 2009, the growth rate has been strong,” Murray said. “We’re off to a great start. We remain confident … it’s been a couple years of growth already.”

Krista Billert, marketing manager for Dura-Bar, said new ideas for uses of the company’s product is key to growing business.

“We’re constantly looking for new applications for the product,” Billert said. “Instead of growing our piece of the pie, we’re trying to grow the whole pie [by] looking at additional industries, and possible applications.”

Billert said the company works to replace low to medium carbon steel products or other types of castings.

“Our customers don’t have a problem we’re trying to fix,” Billert said. “We’re trying to improve performance and decrease costs for them.”

The company also has striven to remain active in the community.

In 2014, it was named as the Business Champion by the McHenry County Economic Development Corp.

“It felt fantastic,” Murray said. “We’ve really prided ourselves on seeking to be a very active participant in the community in McHenry County.”