A mix of clouds and sun in the morning followed by cloudy skies during the afternoon. High 72F. Winds light and variable..
Overcast. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 57F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
An employee of Cadillac Casting monitors the flow of molten metal Tuesday. This year marks the 100th birthday of the foundry’s founding.
Pictured is the Cadillac Malleable Iron facility in the early 1920s, when it was nearing completion.
Pictured is the Cadillac Malleable Iron facility in the early 1920s, when it was still in the process of being built.
Pictured is the Cadillac Malleable Iron facility in the early 1920s, when it was still in the process of being built.
Pictured is on the finished products.
Cadillac Casting employees handle mold cores Tuesday at the plant. The two halves of the mold are combined and placed inside a container, where molten metal is poured, eventually hardening to create any number of products.
Cadillac Casting employees handle mold cores Tuesday at the plant. The two halves of the mold are combined and placed inside a container, where molten metal is poured, eventually hardening to create any number of products.
A Cadillac Casting employee monitors molten metal as it comes out of a holding furnace.
A Cadillac Casting employee monitors molten metal as it comes out of a holding furnace. Pictured in the foreground are metal “ice cubes” used to lower the temperature of the molten metal.
An employee of Cadillac Casting monitors the flow of molten metal Tuesday. This year marks the 100th birthday of the foundry’s founding.
Pictured is the Cadillac Malleable Iron facility in the early 1920s, when it was nearing completion.
Pictured is the Cadillac Malleable Iron facility in the early 1920s, when it was still in the process of being built.
Pictured is the Cadillac Malleable Iron facility in the early 1920s, when it was still in the process of being built.
Pictured is on the finished products.
Cadillac Casting employees handle mold cores Tuesday at the plant. The two halves of the mold are combined and placed inside a container, where molten metal is poured, eventually hardening to create any number of products.
Cadillac Casting employees handle mold cores Tuesday at the plant. The two halves of the mold are combined and placed inside a container, where molten metal is poured, eventually hardening to create any number of products.
A Cadillac Casting employee monitors molten metal as it comes out of a holding furnace.
A Cadillac Casting employee monitors molten metal as it comes out of a holding furnace. Pictured in the foreground are metal “ice cubes” used to lower the temperature of the molten metal.
CADILLAC — As the city has changed and grown during the last 100 years, so too has one of its longest-running industrial plants.
Founded in 1922, Cadillac Casting Inc., located at 1500 4th Ave., started out as a small shop called Cadillac Malleable Iron.
CCI President Kyle Klein said the shop’s initial focus was on producing components for the area’s burgeoning logging industry.
Records from the time indicate “the men behind the (new) industry were chiefly lumbermen who wanted to do right by their loyal employees, and to stabilize the already growing industrial Cadillac.” Charles T. Mitchell and William Saunders were among the incorporating stockholders of the newly established foundry. Mitchell tapped the first pour of molten metal at the foundry on Nov. 4, 1922.
Michael Thompson, CCI vice president of operations, said the shop originally had a “floor molding” setup, meaning that workers manually carried and poured the molten iron into the molds.
During the 1930s, the plant’s primary product was a corrosion-resistant flange used in underground piping systems. During WWII, the plant made millions of bomb plugs — castings to be wrenched to the nose of military aerial ordnance after their detonators were activated. Following the war, the plant focused on the production of automotive casings.
By 1950, the foundry’s workforce had grown to 270 employees.
Starting in the 1950s, a metallurgist name Ray Witt gradually acquired ownership interest of Cadillac Malleable Iron and by 1960, the foundry was fully under his command. It became a subsidiary of Cast Metal Industries in 1972.
Over the next three decades, the foundry would undergo some major operational changes, including installation of an automatic molding machine and pallet conveyer line at the end of the 1960s, and a switch in the 1980s from malleable iron to ductile iron, allowing the company to produce items such as exhaust manifolds, steering knuckles, control arms, axles and powertrain components.
In the early 1990s, the company made another huge facility upgrades when it installed SpoMatic molding, cupola melting and automatic pouring equipment.
Thompson said these improvements made a huge difference in the company’s efficiency and output, transforming the outdated floor-level operation into a modern, automated foundry.
In 1999, the CMI International group of companies was purchased by Hayes-Lemmerz International, Inc.
It was after the acquisition by Hayes-Lemmerz that the plant started to go downhill. Klein said part of that decline was due to poor corporate management, such as limiting the scope of the foundry’s production far below its actual ability.
“There wasn’t enough business,” Klein said.
In 2005, Hayes-Lemmerz announced that the Cadillac plant would be closing and the community would lose 400 jobs.
That’s when Dan Minor stepped in.
Minor began his career at the foundry as a high school co-op student, eventually becoming an executive at CMI and Hayes-Lemmerz.
Minor had built partnerships with businessmen Todd Carlson and Alex Boosalis, and together they developed a plan to save the foundry, which they purchased and renamed Cadillac Casting, Inc.
“We thought we could turn it around,” said Carlson, who added that they had about six months to achieve their goal, or the plan likely would have failed, as the foundry at the time was rapidly hemorrhaging money.
“We had a turnaround plan that Dan championed,” Carlson said. “He led the execution of that plan and we were profitable in the second quarter.”
“This plant would not exist if not for Dan Minor,” Klein said.
A major part of that turnaround plan was to diversify the plant’s production — an effort that continues to this day.
The foundry has expanded into a number of industries, building components for automobiles (mostly Fords) commercial vehicles and agricultural equipment, in addition to one of its latest products — Rogue Kettlebells — which are used for exercising.
Klein said the Kettlebells have been a great addition for them, particularly in the months after the beginning of the ÇOVID-19 pandemic, when many people were building or expanding their home gyms.
“We were struggling to keep up,” Klein said in regard to all the Kettlebell orders that came in during that time.
All in all, thanks in large part to these diversification efforts, Klein said Cadillac Casting is in great shape and getting stronger by the day.
“The future looks very, very good,” Klein said. “The five-year outlook is better than it’s ever been. We’re really pleased with that.”
All the success in the world wouldn’t be possible, however, without the workers who put in long, tough hours day after day at the plant.
“It’s a difficult job,” Thompson said. “It’s hot ... there is 2,600-degree metal in the plant ... but we have some tremendously dedicated people here.”
Some of that dedication has spanned generations: Thompson estimated there are around 100 people working at the plant who come from families of previous plant employees — a father, grandfather, mother or grandmother who worked there decades ago. In fact, Thompson is one of those employees.
To say “thank you” to all those who’ve helped Cadillac Casting Inc. grow into the company it is today, there will be a celebration July 9 at the Cadillac City Park.
Klein said there will be a live performance by rock ‘n roll band Red Wanting Blue at the Cadillac-Rotary Performing Arts Pavilion, in addition to food trucks and a beer truck.
All 404 CCI employees and their families will be invited to the event, in addition to anyone who’s worked at the plant in the past.
“All the people that have spent a significant amount of time here, we want you to reach out to the company,” Klein said.
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
Local News from Cadillac News
National News from Cadillac News
Would you like to receive our daily news? Signup today!
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.
Monday - Friday 8:00am – 5:30pm
Please disable your ad blocker, whitelist our site, or purchase a subscription