SPIROL Celebrates 75 Years of Helping Customers Thrive

SPIROL is pleased to announce the celebration of their 75th anniversary. Since SPIROL’s inception in 1948, the company has been laser-focused on not only helping their 15,000 global customers be more competitive through innovative fastening solutions, but also in serving their constituents who have made the company what it is today. This includes their shareholders, employees, customers, and their community.

This tenet is in lockstep with the three founding families of SPIROL, who after three-quarters of a century are all still intimately involved with the inner workings of the company. In the world as it is today, if the shareholders were only interested in maximizing their return, they would force the minority shareholder out of the business, or they would sell the organization. However, this goes against the grain of this family-centric company and certainly would not be in the best interest of the rest of SPIROL’s constituents.

Hans Koehl, the son of one of the founding members, Herman Koehl, started working for the company in 1959, when it was originally called Connecticut Engineering and Manufacturing Company. He retired from active management of the company as chairman and CEO in 2004 after 45 years of dedicated service. Although retired from the day-to-day operations, Mr. Koehl continues to serve as the chairman of the SPIROL Holding Corporation, and his son, Jeffrey Koehl, is now the CEO.

At the time when Hans Koehl joined SPIROL, it was a small company located in northeast Connecticut with one product, the Coiled Spring Pin, and only a handful of employees. Today, SPIROL has locations on four continents and 13 countries across North America, South America, Europe and Asia. SPIROL has expanded its offering to 12 major product lines and produces over two billion components a year.

Mr. Koehl was asked to name the most influential changes in the manufacturing industry. “From a technological standpoint, the proliferation of plastics and the electrification of products throughout various industries has had a profound effect on our business,” he said.

Given the breadth of markets in which SPIROL products are used, they are fortunate to have been at the forefront of these emerging technologies and have done a great job at recognizing when to develop products to meet new requirements and address the change in the market before they become mainstream. As an example, SPIROL was the first company to create and standardize on a Compression Limiter product line to provide and maintain bolted joint integrity of plastic assemblies.

Hans Koehl was asked to name one thing that has led to the continued success of SPIROL. “Our shareholders’ willingness to continuously reinvest back into the business for us to remain a state-of-the-art manufacturer,” he replied. “There are other key elements that contribute to SPIROL’s success, including: the innovation of our employees to create value, strong management, strategy and taking action, good planning, and adherence to our strategic vision.”

One example of a recent key strategic decision was the acquisition of Ford Aerospace in the United Kingdom. “Unlike our other product lines, Precision Shims is a tough product to take globally because each Shim is custom-made for a particular application,” Mr. Koehl said. “The opportunity arose for SPIROL to acquire Ford Aerospace, which would enable us to produce shims locally for the U.K. and European marketspaces. Given SPIROL’s long-term stability and financial security, we had the funds to quickly act on this opportunity and made the acquisition.”

Mr. Koehl went on to say, “It takes money, people and willingness to grow and expand a company.  We feel a strong loyalty to all of our employees who have made us who we are today.  Our success has enabled us to create good-paying, stable jobs and the ability for our employees to intermingle on a global basis.”

The unwavering financial support of their shareholders has allowed SPIROL to build a unique corporate culture where they truly respect and give back to their constituents. SPIROL offers Employee Educational Reimbursement programs, a matching 401K, and an employee stock ownership (ESOP)/money purchase pension plan.

In addition, a percentage of income is allocated every year to fund the SPIROL International Charitable Foundation that routinely donates to non-profit organizations whose core tenets align with SPIROL’s such as the Audubon Society, 4-H, the YMCA, and local hospitals. The SPIROL Charitable Foundation regularly grants significant monies to local community colleges focused on manufacturing and K-12 schools to support their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs.

Annually, the SPIROL Scholarship Committee, also funded by the SPIROL Charitable Foundation, offers scholarships to eligible students who are going on to postsecondary education and pursuing a degree in Engineering, Basic Sciences or Manufacturing Technology.  Similarly, the SPIROL Kids Scholarship supports STEM development programs for younger kids by granting scholarships for children to attend summer camps focused around the STEM disciplines. In fact, so strong is SPIROL’s core belief of giving back, that there is a separate SPIROL Employee Giving Program that is completely funded by donations from the employees and whose proceeds go directly to patients receiving treatment for cancer at local healthcare facilities.

Hans Koehl concluded that he is most proud in how we “continue to meet our obligation to our constituents in an exemplary way.”