Wausau Metals

Wausau Metals Corporation

Wausau Metals was established in 1956 as a small aluminum fabrication shop to manufacture glass block ventilators. Founder  Glenn R. Straub set up shop in a small space rented from Harold Philip in Schofield, with business partners Orville Peterson (sales engineer), Kenneth Hintz (shop superintendent), and his wife Margaret. 

^ This ad for Wausau Metal's Glass Block Ventilators that appeared on September 15, 1956, was the first time readers of the Wausau Daily Herald heard of the new window company.

Although Wausau Metals was started to produce metal ventilators for the glass block walls that were popular at the time, there were always plans "to expand into the production of other types of windows once distribution of the ventilator [was] established."

In addition to the technical expertise of the new company, it also benefited from a robust marketing and sales division. By October of 1956, the company's products were being marketed across the United States and Canada, and were sold through "glass firms, concrete block manufacturers, and lumber yards." 

By 1959, it was clear Wausau Metals had outgrown its rented space in Schofield, as it had gone from employing 6 workers to 24 in just three years. And so the company made arrangements that year to build a new facility on West Street, off South 17th Avenue in Wausau.

^ The new Wausau Metals plant in June of 1959.

The new building provided space for future growth—so much space in fact, that some were worried they would have to rent out part of the factory. But Wausau Metals soon filled the space themselves, and even underwent further expansions to increase the manufacturing and office spaces over the next few years.

New Ventures in Windows

By 1966, its tenth year in business, Wausau Metals was employing 160 workers and the new building in Wausau had undergone expansions that had quadrupled the floor space.

As the popularity of glass block walls declined over the 1950s and 1960s, Wausau Metals' business had shifted to focus on other styles of commercial and institutional windows made from aluminum.

A Division of Apogee

In 1968, the Straubs sold the company to the Minnesota-based Harmon Glass, which was reorganized to become Apogee. Lawrence J. Niederhofer, vice president of the Minnesota firm, became the head of Wausau Metals. Over the next few years, Wausau Metals become a staple of Apogee's Wausau Manufacturing Division, which expanded to include new kinds of fabrication and window related services, with the acquisition and relocation of Milco, Nanik, Linetec, and other companies.

The diversification of the Apogee companies in Wausau helped the companies survive a recession in the early 1990s (relative to some other companies at least). But Apogee underwent consolidation as the economy recovered, and a number of other companies in Apogee's Wausau Group were integrated into Wausau Metals starting in 1993. And this newly consolidated company was renamed Wausau Window and Wall in 1999, which ushered in the company into the new century and helped differentiate the wider role of the company.

^ This notice printed in the Wausau Daily Herald (published April 26, 1999) announced the name change for local residents.

Wausau Metals campus had done its best to expand its headquarters campus in Wausau over the decades. But there came a point they became landlocked, and so started to look for other locations for their operations. 

This led to "Wausau Metals Plant 4," as it was called, moving into a building in the Stratford Industrial Park in 1997. Stratford had already built the 10,000 square foot space as a "speculative building, and so it was an easy prospect to set up shop there. Stratford also had workers looking for work.

"Stratford is an attractive location because of the number of enthusiastic people looking for work and because of the availability of a plant facility," said Mark Hall, Wausau Metal's vice-president of operations, adding "this new location will add to our ability to grow the business, but does not detract from employement opportunities in Wausau."

-"Wausau Metals Leases Stratford Spec Building" Wausau Daily Herald (5 August 1997)

The Stratford factory helped take the pressure off the Wausau headquarters, but eventually it became necessary to build a new campus for the Wausau Headquarters.

The new headquarters was finished in 2010, and was located in the Wausau West Industrial and Business Park.