Cleats Manufacturing: Making Room For What's Next

Cleats Manufacturing has been around since 1964, when Ernie DeLord founded the company and named it after its first products: slip and drive cleats. When DeLord’s son-in-law, Steve Passannante, joined the company, Cleats gradually evolved from a connector manufacturer into a full-service fabricator producing complete ductwork systems.

Today, Cleats is one of the largest HVAC fabricators in the Chicagoland area, and the third generation is at the helm. Brothers Joe (CEO), Steve (President) and Nick Passannante run the family-owned company with what Joe describes as “complementary skill sets.”

And that team now has a lot more space to work.

After nearly 25 years operating out of two buildings a block apart in Chicago’s Lawndale neighborhood, Cleats recently consolidated into a new 100,000-square-foot fabrication facility in Galewood. The new facility replaces roughly 55,000 combined square feet at the former locations and increases clear height from less than 13 feet to 24 feet.

“The flow of material and the layout of machinery at the old buildings wasn’t ideal. This is just so much better,” Joe said. “It increases our capacity and our efficiency, and that helps the company with growth potential and with both the top and bottom line.”

Getting the layout right was a major part of the process. The Passannante brothers, along with Director of Operations Marty Kackys, toured fabrication shops around the country, including facilities operated by Ventcon, the Hill Group and others, looking for ideas they could bring back to Chicago.

Once the layout was drawn up in CAD, SMACNA National COO Eli Howard and other contractors reviewed the plans and offered feedback before construction began.

“You’re not going to get it right the first time, but you don’t want to mess up how you lay out your coil lines and lasers and your big equipment,” Joe said. “Having Eli and guys from other companies take an hour out of their day to come poke holes in the plan and make suggestions was invaluable.”

The move itself was carefully orchestrated, too. Because Cleats operates duplicate equipment, including two full coil lines, production never fully stopped. The company maintained access to all three buildings from April through July, bringing equipment online in the new facility before shutting down its counterparts at the old locations.

The new shop also gives Cleats more room to improve workflow and expand its use of prefabrication. The company employs about 70 people and is a signatory contractor with SMART Local 73, fabricating rectangular duct and fittings, spiral pipe, gasketed round fittings, flat oval pipe, double-wall duct, welded duct and prefabricated assemblies for contractors throughout Chicago and the Midwest.

The expansion comes at a time when demand remains strong, particularly for data center construction. Cleats has also seen growth in hospital and tenant improvement work.

For Joe, being part of the industry’s future means more than growing Cleats. He has served in SMACNA Greater Chicago leadership for years and chairs the JATC, where he helps oversee training for the next generation of union sheet metal workers.

“I see value in having a hand in managing the school — helping hire instructors, determine curriculum and working to turn out the best union sheet metal journeymen we can,” he said. “I don’t want to sit on the sidelines when it’s such a big part of our livelihood.”

That focus on people carries into Cleats’ own shop and remains at the heart of the business.

“Almost everybody served their apprenticeship here,” Marty said. “They know our system, they work hard, they show initiative, they’re intelligent and they pretty much have worked in every facet of it, so they know what they’re doing. It’s kind of like a family here amongst those key employees because they’ve all been here for quite some time.”

That sense of family extends beyond the shop. On Sept. 24, Cleats hosted an open house at its new facility, welcoming hundreds of industry friends, customers and partners to celebrate the company’s new space.

The event gave longtime customers a chance to see just how different the new facility is from the two buildings Cleats called home for so many years.

“When you open the door to the second-floor mezzanine, you really see the 3D CAD vision come to life,” Joe said. “There’s a lot of machinery in a bright, clean, well-lit space, with natural light. It’s massive and organized and well thought out. A lot of people toured the shop and were pretty impressed with what they saw. Customers who were familiar with the old space saw this and were blown away.”

The new facility may represent a significant step forward for Cleats, but Steve Jr. said the company’s biggest strength hasn’t changed.

“We pride ourselves on our people, the quality and the talent that we have,” he said. “What we do, there’s still a craft.”

Learn more about Cleats Manufacturing: cleatsmfg.com