Business Women Awards 2022
Career Achiever Cheryl Merchant, Taco Comfort Solutions
While growing up on her family’s Michigan farm, Cheryl Merchant learned firsthand the value of hard work, determination and responsibility.
She has certainly put those skills to good use in her professional life in a career that has spanned nearly 40 years and included leadership roles at General Motors Co., Mazda Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co., Lear Corp., Hope Global, and now as CEO of Taco Comfort Solutions in Cranston, which manufactures heating, cooling, plumbing and irrigation systems.
“I’ve taken career opportunities as they’ve come to me,” Merchant said. “I take them if there is an ability to learn and grow and just experience. I discovered early that I was really good at building teams and that’s how I have gotten to this point in my career. Taco has been the greatest opportunity of all.”
Merchant’s accomplishments over the years are many.
As a production supervisor at GM, she completed the company’s leadership training program while becoming one of the first women to lead a 65-member manufacturing team there. At Ford, she served as quality manager and was responsible for five production facilities in Mexico that employed more than 12,000 people and supplied parts and services to over 50 manufacturers.
As a plant manager with Lear, Merchant managed a 3,500-employee operation in Mexico that produced more than 20,000 vehicle seat sets weekly. She also managed international operations in Canada, Poland and England, while providing technical support to operations in Hungary, Portugal and Austria.
In 1999, Merchant was recruited to become CEO and president at Cumberland-based textile manufacturer Hope Global, where she realigned the entire structure of the organization. The revamped business strategy resulted in dramatic revenue growth and increased product lines and market share in the automotive, industrial and defense industries.
Merchant’s successful tenure at Hope Global presented her with two of her greatest challenges, as massive flooding in 2005 and again in 2010 wreaked havoc at the company.
“The memories are brutal,” she said. “Having your 300,000-square-foot headquarters and largest manufacturing operation under 4 feet of rushing water and losing our global network … this was a time to step up when it came to leadership, to hold a team together … to rebuild in a matter of days what was totally wiped out.”
Since Merchant joined Taco in 2019, the company has seen a 20% jump in revenue, all with the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic looming for most of that time.
Despite the numerous challenges Taco faces today – supply chain issues, material shortages, labor availability, security issues and rising inflation – Merchant says the company has never stopped pressing forward and is redefining itself post-COVID to include hybrid work environments, risk management, security, new manufacturing techniques and automation.
Merchant’s efforts to grow Taco’s business have not gone unnoticed by her peers.
David M. Chenevert, executive director of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association, says that in addition to her tireless efforts to ensure the safety of her own employees through the pandemic, Merchant’s leadership and willingness to work with other manufacturers to achieve success has been an inspiration to many.
“Cheryl and I have worked closely over the years but never more than during COVID. We shared ideas, documentation and prevention methods to ensure all manufacturers … had the help they needed,” Chenevert said. “Rhode Island was the only state that kept manufacturing open continuously through the pandemic. It was the leadership of many that made this happen and Cheryl was an integral part of our success.”
Chenevert says Merchant has been a driving force keeping Rhode Island’s manufacturing industry moving forward.
“Her focus has been on employee and people development,” he said, “and all of us recognize her as an outstanding mentor and role model to current and former employees all over the world.”
Merchant has no plans of slowing down and says she and her colleagues are hard at work devising and implementing a new strategic plan and establishing a business operating system to best serve the company’s customers.
“While there is always luck in the world, nothing beats determination, being gutsy and sheer hard work,” she said.
