Michael Erwin
President
Tailored Label Products
Menomonee Falls
www.tailoredlabel.com
Employees: 86
Revenue: $16.8 million
Michael Erwin had more than 25 years of experience leading companies when he became co-owner of Tailored Label Products in 2004, setting out to make the company “the definition of a great place to work,” he said.
“That is definitely who I am as an investor,” Erwin said. “I’m very hands on. I wanted to develop and build a highly enthusiastic highly engaged workplace culture.”
Erwin credits the company’s team of employees for the success.
When he took over, the company had one engineer on staff. Now the company has several engineers who work across departments and have full impact.
“It allows us to be versatile, and we’ve changed the company culture to be one of constant innovation,” Erwin said. “Patent filings are commonplace around here and we’ve invested a lot in training our people to think innovatively.”
The company has added more than 500 new customers in the last four years under Erwin’s leadership. In addition, the company recently acquired the label productions division of Stratix Corporation and built a satellite plant in the Atlanta, Ga. area. Erwin plans to double that operation over the next few years.
Tailored Label recently added a third shift to its workforce and has hired six new full-time employees already this year.
Erwin expects the company to grow at least an additional 33 percent over the next three years.
“We’re in the midst of going to market with a couple of new inventions and we’re keeping our eye out for additional acquisitions,” Erwin said. “And then it’s the little things, recognizing our employees- thanking each of them individually for the good work that they do either with a gas card, or state fair tickets, or Summerfest tickets. We know if we give back to our people, they’ll give back to us with a stronger work ethic and more enthusiasm for her job.”
Tailored Label has also been named one of the INC 5,000 fastest growing privately held companies for the seventh year in a row.
