Hartford Business Journal

18 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 24, 2025 FOCUS | Manufacturing Jonathan Ulbrich holds a medallion marking his family company's 100th anniversary as he stands in front of portraits of his (from left) father, grandfather and great-grandfather, the company founder. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER The Ulbrich Way As the metal and wire company's new 4th-generation leader, CEO Jon Ulbrich looks to the future right leadership techniques, leader- ship mentalities, and then managing our teams in a cohesive manner to hit the goals and the business strategy in general that we have." Each Ulbrich division now holds strategy meetings with all employees, he said. "We want people to come to work and understand the 'why,' so they're actively engaged in solutions." Over the past few years, the company has also hosted workshops for managers, even bringing a group to the Thayer Leadership School at West Point, New York. "We've got an ex-West Point guy coming in April to do a 30-person leadership course for our team here, primarily middle managers that impact a lot of lives," Ulbrich said. "So, we're kind of on this new journey of how do you take our purpose, our values, and instill that through the ranks?" Corporate ladder While officially a company employee for 18 years, Jon Ulbrich actually started when he spent four summers working as a teenager. His first job, he said, was to package rolls of metal coming off the production line. Being the CEO's son did not guarantee him a warm welcome. He recalled one employee during his first summer who chided him that, "You only have this job because your dad is the boss." "I told him, 'That may be, but I'm still going to pack more metal than you,'" Ulbrich told him. "I crushed him." He attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where he double majored in management and marketing. After earning his degree, he returned to Connecticut and started in a sales position that he held for a couple of years. His next step up the corporate ladder was being named materials manager for the Northeast. He did that for a couple of years before being asked to run the sales team. "I inherited a sales team that had a lot of turnover, a lot of people aging out, and we still hadn't quite gotten to that transition between snail mail and email," Ulbrich said. All of that meant he had to "revitalize the culture of our selling process," he said. He set a goal of eliminating major customer complaints "that prevented us from getting future business." By David Krechevsky davidk@hartfordbusiness.com W hen Southington-based Rex Forge announced in February that it would close after 160 years in business because it had lost its only customer, Jonathan Ulbrich took note. Ulbrich — who in January succeeded his father, Chris, as CEO of North Haven-based Ulbrich Stain- less Steels & Special Metals — says his company is too diversified for that to happen. "If they stop building cars tomorrow, yeah, we're going to feel it, but we're still in business," he said. "Same thing with planes, same thing with different types of surgery — we're always going to be here, doing what we do best, which is making precision metals for next-gen products." The company's largest customer represents about 3% of sales. "We're not really beholden to anybody," Ulbrich said. That's the way it's been since his great-grandfather founded a Walling- ford scrapyard called the Fred Ulbrich Co. in 1924. In the century since, Ulbrich has evolved into a metal and wire supplier for the aerospace, auto- motive and medical industries, providing specialty metals or wires for everything from surgical devices to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. While Jon Ulbrich declined to disclose the privately held company's financials, he did say it employs 700 people at 10 facilities in four countries, serving as a re-roller and distributor of stainless steel and special metals, including sheet, strip and foil, as well as for shaped, fine and flat wire and more. The diversity of its products and the various markets served are a testa- ment to the company's adaptability, he says. Most recently, that's included two major acquisitions, both of which expanded its presence in Europe. "If you go back through our history since 1924, every 10 to 15 years we pivot as an organization," he said during a recent interview with Hartford Business Journal at Ulbrich's head- quarters on Route 5 in North Haven. Pointing to a cabinet displaying numerous products for which Ulbrich produced the metal, he noted that many of them are no longer made. "So, once our customers go obso- lete, how do we survive?" he asked. "For us, it's that constant evolution of 'what's next' for the steel industry." 'Succession with purpose' Pivoting is something Ulbrich Stain- less Steels has done quite well over its 101 years, in part because it also has been successful in grooming its next generation of leaders. Jon Ulbrich is the fourth generation to lead the company, something he says the family has never taken for granted. "I think we've always been cognizant that, to survive as a family business, you have to do the succession with purpose, not just by accident," he said. For the most recent transition, that meant sitting down in 2019 to discuss both the future leadership change and the direction of the company, particularly since its 100th anniversary was looming in 2024. The result was committing to a specific way of doing business. "Last year we launched our next cultural iteration called the Ulbrich Way," he said. "It was a redefinition of our purpose as a business, our core tenets, which are really core values, and then a new business strategy." Banners hanging throughout the company's Wallingford manufac- turing facility remind employees of the Ulbrich Way, which includes driving profitable growth through exceptional customer focus, preci- sion and quality, unique products and "best-in-class operational practices." "The future for the next couple years is going to be continuing invest- ment in the Ulbrich Way, which has a lot to do with leadership and manage- ment," Ulbrich said. "Teaching the JONATHAN ULBRICH Chief Executive Officer Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Special Metals Age: 40 Education: Bachelor's degree in management and marketing, Texas Christian University AT A GLANCE Ulbrich Stainless Steels & Special Metals Industry: Steel manufacturing Top Executive: Jon Ulbrich, CEO HQ: 153 Washington Ave., North Haven Website: www.ulbrich.com Contact: 203-439-4758

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