Lemberg Electric grows with Good acquisition

Published: July 19, 2010
Tags: Eisenhardt, ESOP, Good Electric, Lemberg, Lemberg Electric, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, Washebek

By Bill Clements
Special to the Daily Reporter

Waukesha-based Good Electric Inc.’s failed succession plan in December means Lemberg Electric Co. Inc.’s work force just grew by almost 25 percent.

Gregg Eisenhardt, now former president and owner of Good, said there were five suitors for his business, with the best offer coming from a longtime competitor and business friend, Dave Washebek, president and CEO of Brookfield-based Lemberg.

The sale of Good to Lemberg that closed Friday means the 150-employee Lemberg will take on 28 field workers and six office staff members from Good, said Washebek, who turns 55 on Wednesday and said the acquisition is a pretty good gift.

Lemberg’s 23 nonunion employees — office staff members and management — own the company through an employee stock-ownership plan. The six office workers from Good eventually will become part of the ESOP.

Both companies had been weathering the recession well enough, with Lemberg’s revenue sticking around $25 million a year and Good’s averaging about $8 million, Washebek and Eisenhardt said.

The idea of adding a solid company — Good in both 2007 and 2008 made the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce’s Future 50 list of companies that show strong growth in revenue and employment — was too good to pass up even in a difficult economy, Washebek said.

Eisenhardt said that he had an agreement with a former vice president that the vice president would purchase Good Electric from Eisenhardt, but in December the VP left and decided not to buy the company. This created an opportunity for others to buy the firm.

“In times like this, even our company isn’t worth what it was two years ago,” he said, “so we pulled together our advisory board and everyone thought it’d be a good fit.”

What made the deal especially attractive to Lemberg was Good’s base of service customers, Washebek said.

Good performed new construction, but a large part of the business was through service work in existing construction and remodeling.

Washebek, who started with Lemberg in 1978 as an apprentice electrician, said the addition will help Lemberg take advantage of the gradually improving economy and market.

“I think we’ve seen the worst,” he said. “It’s going to be a slow recovery, but I think there is a recovery going on.”

For Eisenhardt, who turns 62 in September, the sale is a chance to ease out of the everyday rigors of running a company and start enjoying more time with his wife, Christy, and their three grown children, he said.

Eisenhardt, who will continue working part-time for Lemberg as a business consultant at least until July 1, 2011, and maybe through July 1, 2012, said he thinks he can enjoy being semi-retired, but Good Electric is all he’s ever known.

He took over the business from his dad, Benjamin, in 1985 and bought him out in 1989. Benjamin Eisenhardt died in September at age 84.

“I was introduced to the business from before I can remember,” Eisenhardt said. “It’s been my whole life. I told my dad when I was 14 that I would buy him out. He laughed, but was really happy when I did.”

Eisenhardt said he talked with his dad about selling the company and “the advice he gave me was, ‘This will be your biggest investment, so don’t get emotional about it. If it’s starting to wear on you, sell it.’”

It was the right time for Eisenhardt, and he said that is good news for his wife.

“She is excited,” he said. “She wants to do some traveling — she wants to get some things going before our health starts to fail in some fashion.”