Paul Mueller Co. reorganization cuts 22 jobs

The company has spent the last several years reinventing itself to adjust to customers’ needs and become not just a manufacturer, but also a designer, transporter, installer and tester of its products.

“We’re taking our equipment from the design stage with our customer clear to what’s installed and in operation today,” said CEO and President Matt Detelich. “We’re focused on the whole system, and long-term, I think that’s going to be our strength.”

The company’s new direction has initiated a reorganization, resulting in at least 22 job reductions in management and professional staff positions this year and as many as 75 hires in the field and shop by the end of the year. Other positions have been modified and consolidated, and the net result could be between 25 and 50 new jobs.

Detelich has been busy since he took over as CEO in mid-October, meeting with the 800 employees at Paul Mueller to make sure everyone knows the direction the company is headed. He’s careful to call the change a reorganization, though, because it’s something all companies in the industry are accustomed to doing – shifting to accommodate the changing market.

“It’s a response to where the market is today,” he said. “The mix of business has been changing.”

Most recently, the industry has experienced a downturn in orders for pharmaceutical systems, a major factor in the decision to close Springfield-based manufacturer Pure-Flo Precision at the end of the year. The closure will leave 118 jobless, and efforts already are under way to recruit them at Paul Mueller.

The ripples from the drop in orders were felt by Paul Mueller, too, but the company’s diversity in products has kept it afloat, Detelich said. For the first nine months of the year, the company had net sales of $98.6 million, up 27 percent over last year. Net income was $2.79 million, compared to a loss of $9.4 million during the same period in 2004.

“We really focused on the pharmaceutical, as some other people have done, and the industry went down. That left a challenge and a lag,” Detelich said. “As one market goes down, we have to be able to flex to the new market quickly.”

As for the future of Paul Mueller, Detelich said the company must continue to balance fabrication and customer service.

“Sometimes we get caught up in the fact that we’re a fabricator, but we’re much more than a fabricator -– we’re actually trying to solve a customer’s problem,” Detelich said. “That’s pretty powerful for our employees to understand.”