Manufacturer keeps jobs and homes together

Move from Burlingame included mortgage assistance for
employees
by Nathan Wright, Staff Writer
Windsor resident Ed Hagen is the envy of most of the working
world. Hagen, who lives in Windsor’s Vintage Greens subdivision and
works at Nieco Industries, has a short trip to work.
“I have a seven minute commute,” he said. “Walking.”
Two years ago, Hagen would have laughed if it had been suggested
that his daily commute could take only minutes. The sheet metal
worker lived in Dublin, California, and fought traffic for an hour
every morning to get to his Burlingame job at the Nieco Corporation
where he built broilers for restaurants across the United
States.
The change began in late 1999 when Nieco’s owners, decided to
uproot their Burlingame business and to relocate to a spot with a
more reasonable cost of living. The owners are one family, Ed Baker
and sons Ed Jr., Matt, Pat and Tom.
“People in the industry thought we were crazy to stay in
California,” said Tom Baker, a Nieco vice-president. “But we’re
Californians.”
The owners were determined to stay in California.
“We started looking in the Peninsula, in Hercules, in Richmond,”
said Baker. “It just wasn’t a fit. Then we came up here. We started
looking around, and thought ‘wow, this is nice.'”
The Bakers decided on a five-acre parcel of land located in
Windsor on Cameron Drive.
“When I first heard the news, I thought ‘bummer,'” said Hagen.
He thought he might be losing his job. “Then they offered us
relocation packages, and it made it very easy for us.”
Nieco is a union shop. Its 30 sheet metal workers belong to the
Sheet Metal Workers Union and negotiate a new contract with the
company each year.
Nieco offered its employees not only relocation packages, but
mortgage assistance plans as well. The hope was that workers would
move nearby. “Most of our workers have been (with us) so long that
I consider them highly specialized,” said Baker.
“We really wanted people to move to the community,” Baker said.
“When we were in Burlingame, everybody commuted.” He estimates that
70 percent of Nieco’s 70 employees made the move to somewhere in
Sonoma County.
Some, like Lee Callero, relocated to other cities. Callero and
her husband, who never thought they’d leave South San Francisco,
moved to Petaluma. “I moved because I love working for Nieco,” she
said. “My husband gave up his business to make this move.”
Callero enjoys Sonoma County, especially the weather. “I never
had a pair of flip-flops until I moved here,” she joked.
“Everybody got help,” said Nieco Chief Financial Officer Jane
Howard. “Most of them now own homes.”
“I guess we’re fortunate to have enough business to sustain
that,” said Baker. “We’re a niche company … The product we make, no
one else makes. We’ve been very fortunate to capture our market and
hold it.”
The business also made the transition to “home ownership,”
moving out of a leased building into a facility that the company
now owns. “This is now our home, not someone else’s,” said
Howard.
It’s hard to miss Nieco’s new home if you’re driving around in
the south east part of Windsor. The company headquarters is located
across the street from Wilson Ranch Soccer Park. Nieco employees
can watch the community children play soccer from their office
windows. The building includes 60,000 square feet of manufacturing
space, and another 15,000 square feet of office space.
Windsor residents need only walk into the local Burger King or
Carl’s Jr. to see what Nieco manufactures. The company has been
building restaurant broilers since 1969, when it installed its very
first commercial broiler in Disneyland’s Tomorrow-land Terrace. The
broiler, which has since been rebuilt, is still in operation in
Disneyland.
Since 1969, the company has added some of the largest clients in
the United States food industry. Nieco broilers are installed in
every new Burger King and Carl’s Jr. restaurant that opens.
There are almost 12,000 Nieco broilers in the Burger King chain,
and another 3,700 in Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. There are Nieco
broilers in 75 countries around the world, including Japan,
England, France, Spain and Germany. There are 140 Nieco broilers in
Army and Air Force facilities. Hamburgers served to U.S. personnel
in Afghanistan are prepared in Nieco broilers.
Mrs. Browning’s third grade class at Windsor Creek Elementary
School has also enjoyed Nieco-broiled hamburgers. Visitors who walk
into the Nieco lobby can page through a handmade thank-you booklet
full of letters written by students who enjoyed a tour of the plant
and free samples of its final product.