Sibling-managed Metals Fabrication Co. bears founding father’s imprint

For siblings Todd Weaver and Sara Weaver-Lundberg, overseeing Metals Fabrication Co. is not just about providing steel for some of the region’s largest buildings – it’s about family.

Mark Weaver – their father – founded the company in 1966. The business evolved from manufacturing Spartan trailers to structural steel, which has been used in local projects, such as the skywalks in downtown Spokane, River Park Square, Gonzaga’s McCarthey Athletic Center and Spokane Valley City Hall.

Metals Fabrication also has been involved in larger scale projects, such as Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle. The company has delivered steel to nine other states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Utah.

When Mark Weaver retired in 2000, he turned over the business to his brother, Dan, longtime employee Tim Mathison and Todd Weaver and Sara.

Mathison and Dan Weaver sold their Metals Fabrication Co. shares in 2011 to Todd Weaver and Sara, who now serve as the president and vice president of the company, respectively.

“There’s a lot of pride to have a family business that’s Spokane grown, owned and operated,” Todd Weaver said. “We are all really proud of that and, hopefully, we can keep that going for many more generations. It’s going to be not just our families. The bigger you get, you have to work hard to bring in other people and give them incentive to want to stay. We’re blessed to have some really good people.”

Joining the family business

Spokane natives Weaver and Weaver-Lundberg didn’t initially envision joining the family business, but both were drawn to it later in their careers.

Weaver graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, while Weaver-Lundberg earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from East Carolina University.

Weaver, after working as an insurance underwriter in Portland, joined the company in 1989 while studying nights and weekends to earn an master’s degree in business administration from Gonzaga University.

“When I was getting my master’s (degree), I was able to apply a lot of stuff (learned) here,” he said. “I wasn’t just pigeonholed into accounting, marketing or operations – I could do everything.”

Weaver-Lundberg was working as an auditor for a regional public accounting firm in North Carolina when Todd called and asked if she would consider moving back to Spokane because the company needed an accountant.

“I was super satisfied at my job. I wasn’t sure at first. I loved North Carolina, my job, my friends – I was there for about 10 years,” said Weaver-Lundberg, who joined Metals Fabrication in 1996. “But, Todd just kept saying, ‘this is your chance to come back, make a big impact and be part of a family business.’ ”

Keys to success

Todd Weaver said keys to the company’s success are adapting to new industry technology, creating a healthy environment for employees and building relationships with customers.

“We’ve got a good reputation,” he said. “We work really hard on that, and finding the right customers and growing with them is really big.”

Weaver-Lundberg said scheduling is everything in the steel fabrication industry, and the company ensures product is delivered on time, which generates repeat customers – a bulk of whom are in Washington and Oregon.

“We are in Spokane, which does not have a lot of big structural steel buildings, but we are fortunate enough to be close to Seattle and the I-5 corridor, which is super busy,” she said. “We are able to do all of our work here in Spokane, provide good jobs to people in our surrounding area, but our product is able to travel all the way to Seattle and become a building there, where the economy is supporting that sort of growth.”

Weaver said equipment and welding processes are changing rapidly in the industry, so it’s important to adapt.

The siblings – to improve efficiency – created a full-time IT department that builds proprietary software, a process that was previously outsourced by the company.

“We are able to develop things internally that help us grow and support that growth,” Weaver-Lundberg said.

A challenge for the company is competing with steel fabrication shops in states with fewer regulations or lower wages that ship product to the Northwest, Weaver said.

“We can take on the big guys all over the country on any type of work and we can compete pretty well against the super small shops,” he said. “We’ve got to be able to have that versatility.”

Todd Weaver and Weaver-Lundberg said the most rewarding aspect of leading Metals Fabrication is providing employees with mentorship and opportunities to grow with the company.

“We worked really hard to give responsibility to management-type people at every level,” Weaver said. “Attitude, dependability, having good skills, honesty – we expect that from all our employees and we tell them they better expect that from us, too, because we want them to be treated fairly. It’s been the biggest game changer for us.”

Weaver-Lundberg said there’s a lot of longevity among employees, some of whom have been with the company for close to 40 years.

“If they work here a long time, they end up becoming our family,” she said.

Favorite projects

Todd Weaver said his favorite project built with the company’s steel is Amazon’s headquarters in South Lake Union in Seattle.

“It’s that collection of buildings, just because they were tough – logistically hard – but one of them had some challenges on it and we learned from it, survived and became better for it,” he said.

Weaver-Lundberg said its enjoyable to be part of construction projects for notable companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, Expedia, Nintendo and Nike.

“But, I also love to say we built a majority of the skywalks downtown. When I drive on Stevens or Washington, I go under the (Lewis & Clark) skybridge, and we built that,” she said. “We went down there as a family and watched it get erected. I love to be able to say we were part of the bigger buildings, but also – living in our community – to be able to point out and say, ‘Wow we did that.’ ”

A father’s advice

While his mother stressed the importance of education while growing up, Weaver said, his father taught him work ethic, finances and innovation.

“He’s was always tinkering. He’s a very brilliant man,” he said. “When computers were new, he was making software.”

Weaver-Lundberg said her father instilled in her the notion that business decisions, such as losing a bid on a job, shouldn’t be taken personally.

“There’s a tendency for you to get depressed and down. Or you have to drive by (the building) all the time,” she said. “And you can’t take it personal. You have to move forward.”

Weaver-Lundberg added that her father also taught her to overcome obstacles and find solutions.

“Our dad was so determined to make it work and figure things out,” she said. “We learned that – not necessarily by him saying it – but by him role-modeling that.”

Future of the company

Metals Fabrication Co. has a backlog of 26,000 tons of steel to produce for projects, and that will keep the company busy into next year, Todd Weaver said.

The company, which has 140 employees, is also expanding its 13-acre steel fabrication campus in Airway Heights with addition of a 29,240-square-foot building that will house welding and fitment equipment, among other things.

The building is slated for completion this summer.

“With the new building coming on, it’s going to be great,” Weaver said. “It’s going to have equipment in it, it’s going to free up space from other bays. We can do the simpler stuff way faster and it will help us to bid more. There’s some stuff we turn down too much, so it will allow us to grow.”