SIDNEY — Third generation owner Mike Lochard is proud to lead his family’s company to celebrate Lochard Inc.’s 70th year in business. Lochard Inc. consists of a contract manufacturing division, an HVAC and plumbing division and retail Do It Best Hardware store. Lochard feels that the diversified manufacturing base located in Shelby County is the driving force in his company’s growth and responsible for the strong economic base for the entire community and he is proud to be part of it. Lochard Inc. closed out the year celebrating many exciting and noteworthy advancements and accomplishments.
Lochard’s Do It Best Hardware store focused on personnel training in order to keep employees up to date and ready to answer customer questions.
“We’ve continued to see a positive response from our customers with the updates to the department and additions to our product line. We will move forward making improvements in 2016 based on continued customer feedback,” said Deb Peters, hardware manager.
Lochard Inc.’s heating and cooling service and installation departments are also proud of the success and growth accomplished in 2015. We have maintained our existing customer base and expanded it with new customers through continual efforts to provide excellent customer service. A large part of the service department’s growth was through the overhaul of our annual maintenance agreement program. This program offers our customers peace of mind, safe operation assurance and automatic, regular maintenance visits. With the many rebates from local utility companies and from equipment manufacturers, Lochard Inc. has been able to provide the best pricing and products for their customer’s needs.
The plumbing department’s success in 2015 was accomplished in part through the many large commercial installation jobs that were awarded to us. The plumbing department was also able to become certified in back flow prevention testing which opened the door to business that we did not have the qualifications for in years past. With the city of Sidney’s continued efforts with the Infiltration and Inflow program, Lochard Inc. has been able to complete a large number of these inspections for the residents of Sidney.
The year 2015 proved to be a tremendous year of growth for Lochards contract manufacturing division which is a full service metal fabricator with manufacturing processes directed toward precision steel, stainless steel and aluminum component manufacturing. Due to a strong, diversified customer base and new customer growth we were able to add a second fabrication plant and purchased the vacant Gateway Supply building located at 950 Wapakoneta. With the additional space across the street from the main facility we were able to procure additional, new equipment. The most interesting additions to the Lochards manufacturing division was a fiber laser and robotic welding cell.
Jeff Mann, Operations Manager, went on to say that “the capital improvements we have made in 2015 will enable Lochards to continue to grow for many years to come.”
The customer base has grown substantially this past year and continued growth is anticipated for 2016.
“Talented personnel have been hired for the increase in our manufacturing division and I anticipate additional people will be needed to fill new positions in 2016,” said Mike Lochard, president.
