Keeping Our Promise: Denver-Based Centennial Bolt Set to Create More Jobs After Enactment of Tax Ref
Updated: Oct 22, 2020
By Christopher Netram April 24, 2018
Centennial Bolt has big plans for the future—and that future begins now. Founded in 1979, the fastener company, which has grown to be a leader in the Rocky Mountain region and, between it and its sister companies, employs 50, is planning to build a new plant in the Midwest, add new product lines, increase the size of its workforce and give out more bonuses as a result of savings and increased competitiveness from the recent passage of historic tax reform legislation.
Mark Cordova, president of Centennial Bolt and a longtime champion of American manufacturing as part of the National Association of Manufacturers’ Executive Committee, is hailing the recently signed legislation as a key factor in launching a new wave of growth, investment and opportunity at the company.
“I’m mapping out putting in a new plant in the Midwest,” Cordova said. The new product line he plans to launch from that facility “is something right now that’s being manufactured primarily in China. We’re actually going to be at a competitive level to build it in the United States again.”
Other advances Cordova attributed to tax reform include the following:
New hiring: To staff Centennial Bolt’s new facility, the company plans to increase the size of its workforce between all its partner companies by 30 percent, growing overall from 50 employees to 65 employees.
New upgrades: The company plans to completely overhaul production at its existing facilities in Colorado and California.
New investments: Over the next two years, Cordova plans to “pour all of its profits back into the business” and setting Centennial Bolt up to be competitive as technology continues to advance. “In our industry, there are people using 1940s equipment because it still works,” Cordova said. But the big savings from tax reform will “really allow companies that weren’t willing to make those kind of capital investments to modernize their facilities.”
New bonuses: Last year, soon after the tax reform was signed into law, Centennial Bolt gave its hourly workers an unexpected bonus as a “Christmas gift,” totaling about 5 percent of their annual salary. Cordova stressed that the windfall for his employees was made possible solely because of the benefits of tax reform. Centennial Bolt intends to offer another similar-sized bonus sometime in mid-2018, also as a result of tax savings.
Increased paychecks: Because Centennial Bolt has generous profit-sharing with its employees, much of the increased profits from Centennial’s expansion and capital investments will also go directly into the paychecks of its workforce.
“Tax savings aren’t just for me,” said Cordova. “It’s so people can have a better life. It’s always been a family motto: our goal is that people will do better for themselves so they can improve their lives and take care of their own.”
Centennial Bolt’s new equipment will not just allow the firm to increase production and make work easier for employees—but Cordova said it will give the men and women on his shop floor a new reason to be hopeful, rather than watch more and more of their manufacturing jobs go overseas.
In addition, Centennial Bolt is using some of its tax savings to give back to the community—namely, its efforts to combat homelessness in its native Denver. At the end of last year, Centennial Bolt supported the opening of a new, 150-bed women’s shelter—helping an important group of people who have long been overlooked. Centennial Bolt also plans to expand its charitable giving to California, where it also has a sister facility, Cordova Bolt, Inc., where he is also the president of the family business.
“Tax reform is a win–win for everyone,” Cordova said. “I believe that.”
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https://www.shopfloor.org/2018/04/centennial-bolt-create-jobs-tax-reform-promise/