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Arete QIS enjoys success, continues to expand |
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Written by Publisher
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Thursday, 06 March 2008 |
 Pictured (left to right) are Carl Loeffler, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Eric Wonderling, President, and DJ VanSlander, Vice President of Manufacturing.
By Becky Polaski
Since opening for business in November 2007, Arete QIS has seen a great deal of success. While the company, which is located on Trout Run Road, initially employed only four individuals, in four short months Arete has expanded to over 50 employees. With business continuing to improve, more additions to both the staff and workspace are planned for the near future.
“Our ISO audit will be implemented next week and that’s when we’re probably going to hire another 20 to 30 people,” said Arete QIS President Eric Wonderling. “We’re also moving into a new building but keeping this building as well. We’ll hopefully be going into the new building over the next 30 to 60 days.”
The ISO audit will take place on Monday, Mar. 10 and Tuesday, Mar. 11. Automotive manufacturers require that their parts manufacturers receive ISO certification.
“What that certification does is it makes sure that everybody is following a specific set of procedures and everybody is following the same procedures to make sure that a part is good quality,” explained Wonderling.
Once the company receives ISO certification, business should improve even more.
In addition to individuals from the St. Marys area, the company also employs workers from Brockway, Emporium, Ridgway, Johnsonburg and Wilcox.
Wonderling is also extremely proud of the quality of employees at Arete QIS.
“People don’t realize what we have here in this area, they really don’t,” said Wonderling. “One thing we have here, which also brought me back to this area, is the work ethic. I would put any group of employees from any plant in St. Marys up against anybody else in the world and they will out produce them.”
Arete is also looking into non powdered metal areas of business and is in discussions with a Philadelphia company regarding seat bus line assembly.
The territory covered by Arete’s retail services covers a range extending from Rochester to West Virginia and from Ohio to Harrisburg.
In addition to providing employment for many area residents and quality services for area businesses, Arete is also involved within the community.
“We’ve offered free software to the high school to offer 3-D modeling,” explained Wondering. “We’ll be doing some work with the high school and, I haven’t had the opportunity yet, but I’d also like to do some work with the local community college to be able to offer some CAD classes.”
Wondering also noted that while the company is looking to expand its number of employees, they have not yet had to advertise because word of mouth has been enough to draw in interested individuals.
“In five years, my new goal is that I’d like to be one of the larger employers in the area,” said Wonderling.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 07 March 2008 )
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