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Marlin Wire

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Marlin Steel Wire Products LLC ("Marlin") is a USA-based (and owned) wire form manufacturer which produces baskets, racks, grates, wireforms and other wire products for industrial material handling. Clients of Marlin Wire include Toyota, Roche, Alcoa and Beretta [1] and the aerospace, food, fashion and biotech industries. [2]

Marlin Steel Wire Products LLC
TypeAmerican private company
Founded1968
HeadquartersBaltimore, Maryland, United States
Key people
Drew Greenblatt, president
ProductsWire baskets, wire hooks, and custom wireforms
Number of employees
28

HistoryEdit

In 1998, Drew Greenblatt took money he made from selling a small home security business and sought a company he thought had the potential for more growth. He found a 30-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y. company that made wire baskets and racks for retailers and the food service business and bought it for $285,000 in cash. [3]

Greenblatt moved the business to Baltimore, Maryland where he lived, hoping to capitalize on lower costs, lower taxes and greater efficiencies through modernization. In 2000, large retailers, such as Target, started importing inexpensive wire products from China, undercutting Marlin's business. [4]

 
Wire-shaping robot at Marlin

Greenblatt reorganized the company's business model to focus on custom-made, high-quality, short turnaround wire products for other manufacturers. In 2002, such jobs made up less than 1 percent of Marlin sales. By 2007, they made up more than two-thirds of Marlin's business, and the average wage for a Marlin employee had more than doubled.[3] Robotics played a significant role in Marlin's growth. As the company shifted from retails to clients in industries such as aviation, defense and biotechnology, the tolerances and dimensions of its baskets had to become ever more exacting to protect parts and to meld with precise manufacturing processes.[5]

In 2010–2011, after 40 years of concentrating solely on steel wire products, Marlin Steel added sheet metal capability with a sheet metal CNC punch, press brake and laser.[6]

In 2012, Marlin Steel was ranked as the 4112th fastest growing private company in the U.S. on the Inc. 5000 list. That same list also ranked it as the 162nd fastest growing private manufacturing company in the U.S.[7]

In 2011 and 2012, Marlin Steel was listed among the 100 fastest growing companies based in an American city by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.[8] It operates in an Enterprise Zone designed to bring jobs to South Baltimore near Cherry Hill.

In 2013, Marlin Steel was named the top medium-sized "Technology Implementer" in the 2013 VOLTAGE awards for Greater Baltimore by SmartCEO magazine.[9]

Political involvementEdit

Greenblatt, an executive board member of the National Association of Manufacturers Archived 2018-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, has testified on business issues several times before Congressional panels.

On April 28, 2005, Greenblatt testified before the Regulatory Reform and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Small Business in Washington, D.C. He spoke on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers, the nation's largest industrial trade association, about the concerns of small business, arguing that Federal bookkeeping regulations are "government-caused obstacles" to the growth of small business: "Accountants do not help my company be more productive or run faster or make higher quality." [10]

On February 28, 2008, Greenblatt testified before the Committee on Small Business of the United States House of Representatives on the Paperwork Reduction Act, again on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers. At this hearing, he described a stack of paperwork "6 feet tall", produced by all of the federally mandated forms required for his business. Greenblatt argued that manufacturing is at a bookkeeping disadvantage to other industries because it "creates more environmental and safety issues than other businesses", and suggested that the increased cost of paperwork could "price [Marlin's] products out of existence."[citation needed]

On April 28, 2010, Greenblatt testified[permanent dead link] on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business Hearing on "Evaluating the Impact of Small Business Trade Policy on Job Creation and Economic Growth." He described the importance of passage of free-trade agreements toward achieving President Obama's goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years. [11]

On July 14, 2011, Greenblatt joined Curtis Richardson of Spirit AeroSystems, the world's largest Tier 1 aerostructures and systems supplier, in briefing the House Robotics Caucus about the emerging role of robots in creating manufacturing growth and jobs. [12]

On September 23, 2011, Greenblatt testified on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs in support of U.S. trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.[13]

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ "A special report on health care and technology", The Economist, April 16, 2009
  2. ^ "Change Brings Success to Marlin Wire" (PDF), Home News (Summer 2008)
  3. ^ a b "Not Made in China: A Baltimore Manufacturer Triumphs Over His Global Competition", Washington Post Magazine, August 19, 2007
  4. ^ "The Road to Resilience: How Unscientific Innovations Saved Marlin Steel", Fast Company, July–August 2013
  5. ^ "The Road to Resilience: How Unscientific Innovations Saved Marlin Steel," Fast Company, July–August 2013
  6. ^ Inc.com 5000 list
  7. ^ Initiative for Competitive Inner City "Inner City 100"
  8. ^ "Baltimore SmartCEO Announces the 2013 VOLTAGE Award Winners," press release, Baltimore SmartCEO
  9. ^ "Robotics: Looming Ever Larger in Smaller Businesses", Robotics Online, Robotic Industries Association, June 17, 2005
  10. ^ "Evaluating the Impact of Small Business Trade Policy on Job Creation and Economic Growth", Witness List, House Committee on Small Business, April 28, 2010, archived from the original on December 12, 2012
  11. ^ "Congressional Robotics Caucus Advisory Committee |", Past Congressional Robotics Caucus Briefings, Congressional Robotics Caucus, July 14, 2011
  12. ^ "Testimony of Drew Greenblatt, President & Owner, Marlin Steel Wire Products, LLC on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representativeso n "Job Creation Made Easy: The Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Trade Agreements, Sept. 23, 2011" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-02-24. Retrieved 2013-08-19.

External linksEdit

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