By MARY ANN SLATERnews@indianagazette.net

CENTER TOWNSHIP — Therehas been much continuity withthe change that came in 2008when longtime family-ownedElectro-Mec Inc. in Center Town-ship was bought by a South Car-olina-based power services com-pany.

Begun in 1927 in Punxsutawneyas Electric Motor Repair, Electro-Mec was in the hands of theGrube family for three genera-tions before its owners sold thecompany to Integrated PowerServices, of Greenville, S.C.

Though ownership changed,

the Indiana company is still man-aged by members of the Grubefamily, who oversaw operationsbefore the sale took place.

“The three (Grube) sons thatoperated and ran it are continu-ing to operate and manage Elec-tro-Mec,” said John Covington,senior vice president of market-ing for IPS. In fact, their influencehas grown, Covington added, be-cause Electro-Mec is now theleader of IPS’ Northeast region,which includes service centers inPhiladelphia and Washington, Pa.

“All decisions pertaining to thatregion are driven out of the Elec-tro-Mec service facility,” Coving-ton said.

The three in charge are JohnGrube, who is senior vice presi-dent of IPS’s Northeast region;Gary Grube, operations managerof Electro-Mec; and Dave Grube,general manager with responsi-bilities related to engineering andtechnology at the local business.

Electro-Mec is one of severalnew service centers that IPS haspurchased in recent years. IPS, aleading independent provider ofpower services, now owns 16 cen-ters around the United States.These service centers offer serv-ice and repair of electric motors,generators and mechanicalpower transmission parts.

According to the IPS website,other service centers are as faraway as Minnesota, Texas, Col-orado and Oregon. Companiesserved are in the metals, petro-chemical, mining, paper and ag-gregate/cement industries.

Several years ago, when IPS offi-cials wanted to expand and beganexploring purchase of Electro-Mec, they very much liked whatthey saw.

“We weren’t looking to buy afixer-upper,” Covington said in arecent telephone interview. “Elec-tro-Mec is a strong company, withstrong management. You look atthe capabilities that Electro-Mecbrings in Pennsylvania, West Vir-ginia, Maryland and parts of NewYork. They brought a deep under-standing of the undergroundmining, metals and power gener-ator industries.”

John Grube said that, in turn,his family recognized IPS’ expert-ise in the power industry. That iswhy, as the family reviewedprospective buyers, they decidedto sell to the South Carolina com-pany. “There was a synergy, anunderstanding of our businesswith them.”

Electro-Mec had other advan-tages to offer IPS, Covington said.Over the years, the company hadacquired specialized equipment— Computer Numerical Ma-chines — that allowed employeesto manufacture for clients preci-sion motor parts such as shaftsand bearing sleeves with a quickturnaround.

And Electro-Mec had a ware-house of new replacement mo-tors they sold to customers — aservice that IPS had not been ableto offer before its purchase of theplant. Covington said Electro-

6 — Business Indiana, Monday, January 31, 2011

Electro-Mec flourishesunder ownership of IPS

Submitted photo

DAVE TURK used a NEMA stator rewound at IPS Electro-Mec in Indiana.

Continued on Page 7

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Mec has long had a wide stockand is able to sell industrialclients replacement motors up to80,000 horsepower.

“It is all about serving the cus-tomer fast, with as high as qualityas possible,” Covington said.

According to Covington, therehas been little if any changes tothe management structure atElectro-Mec since IPS’ acquisi-tion. A building addition com-pleted shortly after the ownershipchange added approximately20,000 square feet to the plant,which now is 86,000 square feet.

Covington said that while Elec-tro-Mec’s acquisition gave defi-nite advantages to IPS, he be-lieves Electro-Mec has reaped re-wards for itself. Because of itslarger scope, IPS offered ad-

vanced technological resourcesthat Electro-Mec incorporatedinto its operations.

But more importantly, Electro-Mec now does business with theother 15 service centers under theIPS umbrella — business that itdid not have before the sale threeyears ago. For example, there isthe increased sales of Electro-Mec’s replacement motors tonearby IPS service centers.

“They are supporting Philadel-phia, Pittsburgh (center in Wash-ington, Pa.,) Cleveland,” Coving-ton said. “Electro-Mec, by beingthe leader of the Northeast re-gion, is trying to grow not only itsown facility but also its sisters inPhiladelphia and Pittsburgh.”

Both Covington and John Grubesaid that Electro-Mec’s new tieswith IPS’ other service centers

helped sustain business over thepast year or two, as the sour econ-omy hurt Electro-Mec’s sales withits more traditional clients in themetals and mining industries.

Grube said when Electro-Mecwas sold, 136 employees workedat his plant. With the economicdowntown in 2009 and part of2010, 10 workers lost their jobs.But Grube said conditions are im-proving again.

“The workforce is back to whereit was in 2008.”

Grube said there are no majorchanges planned for Electro-Mec’s future. There is just an ex-pectation of steady growth in itsrepair business and the sales ofreplacement motors.

“We are definitely expandingour geography and our marketshare,” Grube said.

Submitted photo

KEN HOWELL helped manufacture a motor shaft at the company’s plant inCenter Township.

Continued from Page 6

Electro-Mec flourishes

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By RANDY WELLSrwells@indianagazette.net

BLAIRSVILLE — In 1980, dairyfarmer Charles Kendall was search-ing for high-tensile fencing he hadbought previously and had goodsuccess with. But it was hard tocome by.

When he did find a supplier, hebought an entire truckload of thespecial high-tensile wire with aplan: He’d use what he needed andsell the rest.

That was the beginning of Ken-cove Farm Fence Supplies.

Today, the Burrell Township com-pany — named after the prefixKendall used for his Holstein herd— has everything needed to buildan agricultural fence, whether it’sto keep beef cattle inside a pastureor to keep pesky raccoons out of abackyard patch of sweet corn.

The company’s 55-page cataloglists wire, plastic-coated wire,woven wire, connectors, tighten-ers, insulators, electric fence ener-gizers, posts, gates, tools and more.

Kendall said his company origi-nally was oriented toward dairyfarmers, but it now stocks fencingfor all livestock.

A specialty fencing company likeKencove fills a niche because “thereare a lot of options” when it comes

to fencing, Kendall said. Dairy cat-tle, for example, don’t need as se-cure a fence as beef cattle. Horsesrequire a different enclosure thangoats.

“One person may need to keepdeer in, and another may need tokeep deer out,” said John Mc-Connell, general manager.

“We’re aware of the options avail-able,” Kendall said, and Kencove’sspecialists make suggestions aboutthe 1,100 products in stock that canbest fit a customer’s needs.

A significant portion of the busi-ness is with fence contractors whospecialize in fences for farmers.

“We own tooling, buy materials

and make it into finished prod-ucts,” McConnell said. A good ex-ample is electrified netting. It wasdeveloped in England, and Ken-cove purchased the factory thereand moved the looms to theBlairsville facility.

“It’s very nearly predator-proof”and ideal for protecting sheep,goats and pasture poultry, Mc-Connell said.

Customers can walk into theBlairsville store and buy what theyneed, or order by phone from thecompany’s catalog or by e-mailfrom the company’s website. Web-site sales are the fastest-growingsegment of the business, up 61 per-cent in the past two years.

“Each year we set a (website) goaland usually exceed it in October,”McConnell said.

Kencove’s website had more than

2 million page views and morethan 400,000 unique visits last year.

Products are shipped by com-mercial ground carrier and largeorders are shipped by contracttrucks. McConnell said the compa-ny sends out more than 200 trailertruck loads of products annually.Last year, the company shippedmore than 70 million feet of wire,enough to stretch from Pennsylva-nia to California and back fourtimes. Also last year, the companyshipped more than 5.1 millionmetal crimp sleeves, a little wireconnector that was one of the firstproducts offered by the company.

Kencove imports materials andexports finished fencing productsto 17 countries.

The firm has 35 employees at itsBlairsville location and at a distri-bution center in Earl Park, Ind.

8 — Business Indiana, Monday, January 31, 2011

Kencove posts record sales with farm fencing

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in 20105.1 million: Number of crimp

sleeves shipped last year17: Number of countries

Kencove does business with61 percent: Growth rate for

Kencove’s website sales since2009

TOM PEEL/Gazette

JOHN McCONNELL stood among coils of wire fencing in the warehouse.

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At Sandwich House, there’s a taste of historyBy NICOLE ROSER

nroser@indianagazette.net

ELDERTON — For some, keeping a smallbusiness open in a small town can be chal-lenging, but for the Sandwich House, in El-derton, business has remained strong for thepast 25 years.

Greg Frailey, owner of the Sandwich House,said the secret to staying in business is “offer-ing good food at a good price in a comfort-able atmosphere.”

December marked 25 years for the restau-rant, and celebration plans are being madefor the spring.

Built more than 150 years ago, the buildingholds a lot of history, having once been afarmhouse, a dress shop and a dentist’s of-fice. Now the building is home to a restau-rant that serves customers in a “homey” at-mosphere and is decorated with many an-tiques that customers enjoy looking at, hesaid.

The house was updated through the years,with major renovations made in 1999. How-ever, he said the original woodwork is still in-tact.

Before Frailey took over the business in1991, his sister-in-law’s family owned and

operated it. But the restaurant has been partof his daily routine since his teenage years.He worked there evenings and weekendsthrough high school.

Even though Frailey has been working atthe Sandwich House for quite some time,

Frailey said each day is a new day for himand his five employees.

He said the restaurant sees many regularswho stop by often.

“My favorite part of the day is just talking topeople — a lot of customers become like asecond family, like the regular customers,”he said.

Popular items on the menu are hoagiesand many different homemade desserts andhomemade soups, made fresh every day.

“We try to have different soups each day,”Frailey said. “For someone looking for some-thing on the lighter side, they could chooseto order the soup instead of a full meal.”

Frailey described his business as havingmany options, and a great place for birth-days, anniversaries, retirement dinners andclub meetings.

“It is more than just a sandwich house,” hesaid. “We are going to keep on doing whatwe’re doing — offering good food, and keepon plugging away.”

THE present-day Sandwich House, left, and a photo of the building from the early 1900s.

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