Founded 1968 | Number of employees 28 | |
 | ||
Type American private company Headquarters Baltimore, Maryland, United States Key people Drew Greenblatt, president Products Wire baskets, wire hooks, and custom wireforms | ||
Marlin Steel Wire Products LLC ("Marlin") is a USA-based (and owned) wire form manufacturer which produces baskets, racks, grates, wireforms and other wire products for industrial material handling. Clients of Marlin Wire include Toyota, Roche, Alcoa and Beretta and the aerospace, food, fashion and biotech industries.
Contents
History
In 1998, Drew Greenblatt took money he made from selling a small home security business and sought a company he thought had the potential for more growth. He found a 30-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y. company that made wire baskets and racks for retailers and the food service business and bought it for $285,000 in cash.
Greenblatt moved the business to Baltimore, Maryland where he lived, hoping to capitalize on lower costs, lower taxes and greater efficiencies through modernization. In 2000, large retailers, such as Target, started importing inexpensive wire products from China, undercutting Marlin's business.
Greenblatt reorganized the company's business model to focus on custom-made, high-quality, short turnaround wire products for other manufacturers. In 2002, such jobs made up less than 1 percent of Marlin sales. By 2007, they made up more than two-thirds of Marlin's business, and the average wage for a Marlin employee had more than doubled. Robotics played a significant role in Marlin's growth. As the company shifted from retails to clients in industries such as aviation, defense and biotechnology, the tolerances and dimensions of its baskets had to become ever more exacting to protect parts and to meld with precise manufacturing processes.
In 2010–2011, after 40 years of concentrating solely on steel wire products, Marlin Steel added sheet metal capability with a sheet metal CNC punch, press brake and laser.
In 2012, Marlin Steel was ranked as the 4112th fastest growing private company in the U.S. on the Inc. 5000 list. That same list also ranked it as the 162nd fastest growing private manufacturing company in the U.S.
In 2011 and 2012, Marlin Steel was listed among the 100 fastest growing companies based in an American city by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. It operates in an Enterprise Zone designed to bring jobs to South Baltimore near Cherry Hill.
In 2013, Marlin Steel was named the top medium-sized "Technology Implementer" in the 2013 VOLTAGE awards for Greater Baltimore by SmartCEO magazine.
Political involvement
Greenblatt, an executive board member of the National Association of Manufacturers, has testified on business issues several times before Congressional panels.
On April 28, 2005, Greenblatt testified before the Regulatory Reform and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Small Business in Washington, D.C. He spoke on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers, the nation's largest industrial trade association, about the concerns of small business, arguing that Federal bookkeeping regulations are "government-caused obstacles" to the growth of small business: "Accountants do not help my company be more productive or run faster or make higher quality."
On February 28, 2008, Greenblatt testified before the Committee on Small Business of the United States House of Representatives on the Paperwork Reduction Act, again on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers. At this hearing, he described a stack of paperwork "6 feet tall", produced by all of the federally mandated forms required for his business. Greenblatt argued that manufacturing is at a bookkeeping disadvantage to other industries because it "creates more environmental and safety issues than other businesses", and suggested that the increased cost of paperwork could "price [Marlin's] products out of existence."
On April 28, 2010, Greenblatt testified on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business Hearing on "Evaluating the Impact of Small Business Trade Policy on Job Creation and Economic Growth." He described the importance of passage of free-trade agreements toward achieving President Obama's goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years.
On July 14, 2011, Greenblatt joined Curtis Richardson of Spirit AeroSystems, the world's largest Tier 1 aerostructures and systems supplier, in briefing the House Robotics Caucus about the emerging role of robots in creating manufacturing growth and jobs.
On September 23, 2011, Greenblatt testified on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs in support of U.S. trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.