Essex Industries: Vital Components for Life

Volume 55  Winter 2003

Essex Celebrates the 55-Year Milestone with Pride

In this issue, Sidney Guller, Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Essex Industries shares his perspective on Essex’ 55 years of success and the creative genius…

As we successfully turn yet another milestone year — entering our 56th year in fact! — I’m in awe that our strength, pride and longevity still continue to be innovation.

Hey folks, after 55 years, most of us would be looking at retiring. Not me and especially not Essex. Essex just keeps getting stronger. Reaching farther. Accomplishing more. Spearheading the new idea.

I mention retiring, almost euphemistically. Think of all of the giants before us that are no longer in business in Missouri alone. Scullen Steel Corporation, no longer in business. Carter Carburetor, no longer in business. Falstaff Brewery, no longer in business. And many others that are no longer in business. But Essex is very much in business and very much a part of Saint Louis.

It’s something to ponder actually. Sure, we’re a privately held, family business. But how does a small company like Essex survive where giants have fallen? How does a David survive in the midst of Goliath’s? Could it be sheer determination? Perhaps. What about our commitment to invest in our people with training and Masters programs? Absolutely. Or, how about our ongoing major investment in our manufacturing and product technologies? Definitely.

While a lot has changed globally in the last 55+ years, let me share with you my perspective of how this gem of a company keeps on target.

My role as Chief Financial Officer began as a child. Everyone was always giving me his or her "two cents" worth. Now that I’m the Chairman and CFO of Essex Industries, I give my own two cents. And I’ve learned that there’s a balance between conservative fiscal policies and bold, unbridled plans for expansion. Sure, there have been differences of opinion in my nearly 55 years as chief bean counter, but being a family business gave me an opportunity — rare in our corporate world — to fight for my point of view over a kitchen table or a picnic table, rather than just a boardroom table.

With a brilliant team of employees, and keeping our company privately held, we have focused on our long-range goals and not had to worry about undue pressures from outside stockholders and financial-something-or-others pushing for short-sighted gains. That, of course, allowed us to plow back profits for growth in our people and our manufacturing.

But there was a personal risk to this freedom. Being a family business also meant that banks wanted our personal guarantee on all loans. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! I think it’s safe to say we put our own money where our employees’ mouths were. My brother Harold and I pledged everything: savings, homes, cars, the spare change behind the cushion of my couch… everything! Whatever we owned became collateral for the banks. To say we count on the ingenuity of our employees is the understatement of the millennium. But it was also the best investment in the belief of the creative genius in our family of employees.

And from the very beginning we have all shared brother Harold Guller’s and my original dream to build a solid company that would employ the human entrepreneurial spirit and create innovative products and services whose value, quality and success would benefit our customers. The sheer determination of our employees to innovate and grow in spirit and ability attests to the success of that dream started over 56 years ago!

The creative brilliance is in all of us at Essex. With our manufacturing expertise, it’s easy to think only of the ingenuity of Engineering. But it goes deeper. I also salute our Manufacturing Planning Teams, skilled Operators and Assemblers, Quality Control experts, Computer Information Technology teams, brilliant Accounting minds, Administrative and Clerical miracle-makers, and our efficient Procurement and Shipping from all of our subsidiaries and divisions of Essex. Every facet of our business is interdependent on one another. And to watch these entities perform together like a machine is true genius.

Like I said before… from where I sit, I can safely say that I have seen the challenges and the triumphs. A lot has changed in our 56 years as a company and in our world. And yet one thing has remained the same: the true grit and genius of our family of employees.

And that’s one thing I can always count on.