Work fires up again at Rockford Brake Manufacturing, moving faster than expected

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — When the new owners of one of the city’s oldest manufacturing businesses mapped out their comeback, they expected it to take about six weeks to bring the shuttered Gunite Corp. back to life.

They beat their own benchmark.

Rockford Brake Manufacturing, 302 Peoples Ave., is back to melting iron and pouring castings for Gunite Brake Drums less than four weeks after announcing the ownership change.

“That’s something that nobody expected was possible,” said co-owner Brandon Baumann, who is also the company’s director of operations. “There are organizations out there — investors, other businesses — that were kicking the tires on this place, and in their evaluation there was no way this place could be back up and running before the end of the year. … Here we are doing it in three and a half weeks.”

The restart comes about 11 months after Accuride, the former parent company of Gunite, closed the factory while it restructured under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The closure led to 327 layoffs and left the site idle.

Then four employees — Baumann, Mike Brandi Jr., Tim Davis and Scott Henderson — purchased the business and planned its restart. They brought on manufacturing industry veteran Paul Wright as the company’s CEO.

Now more than 100 people are working at the plant and foundry, with plans for a total of 150 on the team.

The company has gone through several ownership changes since its founding as Eagle Foundry in 1854. The latest change had additional challenges of coinciding with a newly formed business, rather than an acquisition like years past.

“Every aspect of that business is basically a 170-year-old startup,” said Angela Kay Larson, executive director of the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce, which helped connect the owners with business resources for their comeback. “The story just touched my heart. Four middle managers owning the company they used to work for.”

Restarting the factory meant lengthy hours of testing, troubleshooting and validating the equipment before work could begin in earnest.

“These guys have already been achieving sporadic but hourly numbers that were rivaling what this site was performing at before it shut down,” Baumann said. “To get from there to here this quickly is really a testament to what these guys are doing.”

It also meant hiring a team that would work across multiple roles. The company is building up its castings in the foundry before team members move over to the machine shop to finish the brake drums.

That approach was taken so that employees could stay on the job as the plant ramps up production. If team members had stayed in specialized roles, it could have required cutting hours or temporary layoffs until the plant was up to speed.

“We didn’t want to take that approach,” Baumann said. “We wanted to start with the smallest but critical mass staffing levels. The way we were able to do that is by getting team members who were willing to play a role wherever they’re needed.”

So far, approximately 75% of the people hired have previous work experience with Gunite, Baumann said. Some of them were employed at the time of bankruptcy and others had experience in years past.

Employment will increase as production grows. They already have more than $10 million in sales commitments from major truck manufacturers and expect production to increase in January. That will put it toward its goal of 150 workers.

“We will grow and expand to that number,” Baumann said. “We’re trying to make sure that we’re growing at the right pace that aligns with our actual sales.”

Reopening the plant is expected to generate $370 million in economic activity for the region over the next five years. That figure factors in payroll, taxes, and the raw materials it sources locally.

“More than three-quarters of our total expenditures as a business are going local to the greater Rockford area over five years,” Baumann said.

It will also continue to reinvest in equipment and infrastructure beyond the initial estimated $6.6 million to reestablish the company.

“We’re going to be reinvesting $4-$5 million every year back into the business,” Baumann said. “That’s what a foundry takes to sustain its performance.”

Larson, who leads the chamber, said that three companies reached out to her after the Rockford Brake Manufacturing announcement with other business prospects. She said that’s a sign of economic development momentum.

“We talk a lot about our industrial roots and in the next breath we talk about how manufacturing has declined since the ’80s,” she said. “With the prospective of more companies reshoring and there being a manufacturing resurgence in this country, I think it’s a beautiful example of why Rockford is a great place to invest.”

The owners see plenty of space in the brake drum market to make their mark. Only one other domestic foundry, Waupaca, is producing brake drum castings.

“Between the two of us we don’t even cover 100% of the market,” Baumann said. “Customers were forced to source even more from outside the U.S. when this site shut down. Even though they wanted to buy U.S. product, there just wasn’t enough necessarily available for them to be able to source it.”

The ownership team said new anti-dumping tariffs on brake drums and Section 232 tariffs on medium- and heavy-duty trucks helped create a climate for business to succeed. They also benefited from local leadership in City Hall, the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce and state lawmakers to help connect them to resources to restart.

The state’s EDGE for Startups program will provide incentives through payroll tax credits to help reduce costs. The program allows companies to decrease their payroll withholding taxes instead of their Illinois corporate income tax liability. That enables companies without corporate income tax liabilities to maximize tax incentives by reinvesting it into their expansion, according to the state.

The factory’s comeback as Rockford Brake Manufacturing was celebrated Oct. 27 with the chamber, local dignitaries and company representatives.

“The day we made that announcement was the day that we started hiring team members,” Baumann said. “From that day to now to be able to get to this point, is something that nobody believed was possible except for the guys here that have actually made it happen.”

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas