During the recession in 2009, when other companies were having a hard time keeping up with orders, A.T. Wall Co. in Warwick was smart. It expedited production to provide for a maximum five-day turnaround on standard waveguide business instead of the usual two- to three-week gap between an order and delivery.
And, at least according to management personnel, rank-and-file workers on the factory floor responsible for making the conductive metal waveguides did not complain one bit about the tighter deadlines.
“The workers here are always willing to do what’s needed,” said Al Goncalves, general manager. “Everybody was proud to do it,” added Donna Parker, director of sales and marketing.
To Peter C. Frost, president and CEO of A.T. Wall Co. and the fifth generation of his family to head the business, his workers’ cooperation was no surprise. “I am a strong believer that everyone wants to do the right thing,” he said, “and as long as you tell them what ‘the right thing’ is, they’ll line up appropriately.”
This ability to change with the demands of the time, in a spirit of collaboration and acceptance, is perhaps the key to A.T. Wall Company’s longevity. Founded 125 years ago, originally located on Clifford Street in the former Jewelry District of Providence, the company has successfully bounced back from greater setbacks than a mere recession.
Consider the bankruptcy back in 1969, which as Frost noted turned out to be a catalyst for lasting changes that have only strengthened A.T. Wall Co.
Frost explained that what was then a jewelry-making company managed, as other industries departed, to continue operations in the 1940s, 1950s and almost through the 1960s until “the jewelry business [in Rhode Island] all but disintegrated. There were a number of inefficiencies at the Clifford Street site, the company hit a wall and filed for Chapter 11,” Frost said.
Frost’s father, Frederick G. Frost III, was owner of the privately held company at the time. He immediately embarked on a diversification strategy and an acquisitions hunt.
The company eventually branched off into other kinds of manufacturing – such as the seamless metal tubing and metal stamping it specializes in today – and by the end of 1999 was one of a cluster of companies now known as the ATW Group. The elder Frost remains at A.T. Wall Company as chairman of the board and retains a front office at the Warwick plant. Peter Frost joined the firm in 1994.
Today, the company is part of an ATW Group that employs a total of 300 people and includes three other firms, in East Providence, California and Pennsylvania. The East Providence plant opened last year, moving from New Bedford to Rhode Island.
The products the Warwick plant manufactures are used in various industries, such as telecommunications, health care, electronics, defense, aerospace and explosives. Some 40 percent of its market is overseas, with commissioned sales representatives at work all over the world, Parker said. At any one time, there can be as many as 300 individual jobs in various stages of production on the factory floor and the company has about 700 customers, she estimated.
An up-and-coming process that A.T. Wall Co. sees as “one of our growth areas,” Parker said, is metal stampings, now sold mostly to the electronics industry for use in sensors. The company would like to expand its market for metal stampings to other fields such as health care and automotives, she said. There’s plenty of competition. Metal stamping “is a big business in Rhode Island,” Goncalves noted.
“Be the Best … Do It Right” is the local firm’s motto, which Frost said speaks to the “internal motivations that drive us as a company.” However, the company would not have been driven far without its employees. “Without our employees here, we’re [in trouble],” Frost said.
Several “senior employees,” skilled, longtime workers who were in their 40s and 50s, were laid off around 2000, only
to be brought back to A.T. Wall Company as consultants because their expertise could not be replaced.
“It takes a good two to three years to become moderately familiar with the draw-board process,” Goncalves said, referring to the metal-working procedure at the core of the company’s manufacturing operations.
“What makes these machines work are the people,” Frost said. “Anybody can buy a machine, but not everybody can get a machine to do what these guys can out there [on the factory floor].” •
COMPANY PROFILE
A.T. Wall Co.
OWNER: Frederick G. Frost III and family
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Manufacturer of seamless tubing and stamped components
LOCATION: 55 Service Ave., Warwick
EMPLOYEES: 51
YEAR FOUNDED: 1886
ANNUAL SALES: WND
