Magnetics Business & Technology - November/December 2019 - 26

INDUSTRY NEWS

Employee Ownership Supercharges
Business at Windings
Separately, Windings has recently been renovating and
expanding an existing building which it purchased for its new
headquarters in New Ulm, MN. The 70,000 sq ft facility is
designed to accommodate the phased consolidation of its three
existing facilities in the area. "Consolidating into a single location will significantly increase our operational efficiency and
effectiveness," said Seth Visser, vice president of operations,
"and the additional square footage will allow the extra capacity
needed to support our future growth plans."
The interview was published in the NCEO Ownership Report
May-June 2019. To read more, visit: https://www.windings.com/
nceo-interview-ceo/

Merger of SEPAC and Placid Industries Joins
Manufacturers of Magnetic Brakes, Clutches
and Motion Control Products
Employee ownership has supercharged the business of Windings, Inc. in unique ways says Heather Braimbridge-Cox,
president and CEO of the company which is a manufacturer of
custom motors, generators and electromagnetic components.
Reduction of waste and rejects, and a culture of "intrapreneurship, are two key benefits that she cites in a recent interview for
the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) in which
she speaks on the challenges and rewards of leadership in an
employee-owned culture.
"For example," she notes, "at Windings everyone is looking out
for an opportunity to cut waste or to reduce rejects. As a result,
we have seen our total cost of reject and rework go from 11% to
4.5% of our total product cost in the last two years, and it's still
trending down. That is a phenomenal success for a company
manufacturing custom electric motors, generators, and related
components."
She also cites the culture of ownership at the company. "If you
foster an ownership culture, you don't have to be involved in
every detail. At Windings, we like to call it "intrapreneurship":
thinking like an entrepreneur inside our own company. We give
employee-owners the authority to self-direct, collaborate on
complex problems, take initiative, and make on-the-spot decisions that are right for the customer and the company."

SEPAC, a manufacturer of electromagnetic clutches and
brakes, and Placid Industries, a manufacturer of magnetic particle brakes and clutches, hysteresis brakes and controls, have
completed the integration of their businesses after a recent
merger. Now the two operations are consolidated at SEPAC's
headquarters in Elmira, NY, and providing an expanded range
of electromagnetic products.
"We are enormously excited to scale our business with the
iconic Placid Industries brand," said John Meier, president of
SEPAC. "Our strategic acquisition and integration build out
our product line across the full range of the clutch and brake
spectrum." Together, the two companies can now offer OEMs a
wider range of motion control solutions and application expertise, he said.

Groundbreaking ceremony for new headquarters

26

Magnetics Business & Technology * November/December 2019

"Placid brings more than 50 years of strong technical product
performance and applications expertise with a diversified,
global customer base on a recurring revenue business model
built on rapid deliveries and responsive customer service," said

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