CBJ's Largest Privately Held Companies 2018

Centro Inc.
9
BRIAN OLESEN
PRESIDENT & CEO
It’s been a long three years, but there appears to be
light at the end of the tunnel for Centro Inc.
The rotational molding company headquartered
in North Liberty with offices in the U.S., Ireland and
Brazil has weathered three consecutive years of a significant
down cycle in its core markets of agriculture
and construction equipment, and is now seeing a “very robust
bounce back,” according to President and CEO Brian Olesen.
Centro has seen its construction sales surge in particular
as its clients – manufacturers
such as Deere & Co., Caterpillar
and Toro – have responded
to stronger global demand
for infrastructure and homes.
The ag sector appears to be
trending upward as well.
Centro is also reaping the
benefits of its investments
in its R&D and engineering
operations, which have kept
demand up and attracted new
customers. Innovations like
its diesel exhaust fluid (DEF)
tanks and its patented RotoLoPerm
process, which limits
fuel vapors from leaking
from molded gas tanks, have
helped manufacturers meet
increasingly stringent environmental regulations, while also
creating new licensing streams for the company. New markets
have similarly opened up, ranging from molded lawn and garden
items to Gunner Kennels.
“Engineering is one of those resources that can set us
apart from other rotational molders in the industry today,”
Vice President of Engineering Alvin Spence previously told
CBS2/FOX28. “Centro has always had a vision of setting
ourselves apart providing solutions to the OEMs that they
can’t get anywhere else.”
The company hit $119.4 million in revenue in 2017, and is
up 25 percent year over year eight months into its current fiscal
year, Mr. Olesen said.
“Interest rates remain low, consumer and business leader
confidence is high, and we support good strong companies
in industries that will
prosper,” Mr. Olesen
wrote in an email.
“The overall fundamental
of population
growth needs infrastructure
and food to
sustain it, and those
are our key markets.”
Indeed, if anything
could derail the good
times, it’s the company’s
ability to hire people
to make its products.
Centro has grown
over the past two
years from about 850
employees to nearly
1,000; if all of its open
positions were filled,
the company would
cross the 1,000 mark, Mr. Olesen said.
THE TEAM
EXECUTIVE TEAM
Brian Olesen, President & CEO
Tripp Traicoff, VP Operations
Alvin Spence, VP Engineering
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Diane Flynn
Brian Olesen
Gary Rozek
SUPPORT TEAM
Bradley & Riley PC
CliftonLarsonAllen
Wells Fargo
Centro currently finds itself capacity constrained at its largest
plants, and has instituted “significant wage increases” at all
of its locations in a race to keep up with the global economic
recovery. In North Liberty, the company is now hiring workers
at $16.20 per hour to start without experience, with full benefits,
Mr. Olesen said.
“It’s all about the labor. Our biggest constraint managing
our growth is people, or the lack of them,” he said. “If our local
businesses are to continue growing, we need growth in the
labor pool.”
Part of the solution to the company’s workforce challenges
will have to come from a regional willingness to reevaluate
and promote manufacturing jobs as a viable profession, Mr.
Olesen added.
“I just read that in January there were 425,000 open manufacturing
jobs [in the country], so it is felt everywhere,” he
added. “We need to do a better job in promoting manufacturing
as a career opportunity. All nine of our Centro manufacturing
locations are being run by long-term associates that started
without any experience and at an entry-level position.”
- Adam Moore
22 CBJ’S LARGEST PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES 2018