T. J. Snow Company, a local manufacturer and distributor of resistance welders and related supplies, reached its 50-year milestone in business and celebrated with an open house and employee luncheon.
Founded by T. J. (Jim) Snow, Sr., on April Fool's Day, 1963, the company has grown from a one-man operation to over 75 employees. Today it is housed in a 64,000 square-foot climate controlled facility on 12 acres adjacent to the Chattanooga airport.
Although T. J. Snow Company now does business on a worldwide basis, with customers in Mexico, India and China, it was originally conceived as a small southeastern sales and service representative for northern manufacturers of resistance welders and related parts and accessories.
In the days before four lane highways and Holiday Inns, Jim Snow had to travel 11 states to find enough customers to survive, but he soon saw his company expand from the dining room of his home to rented office space on Ringgold Road in East Ridge.
In 1972, the company moved to a new location on Jim Snow Way, just off Lee Highway, where a 4,000 square foot office and warehouse was constructed for its use. Over the next 39 years, those facilities were expanded and adjacent properties purchased. In 2011, when a more efficient facility became available nearby at the airport, the company consolidated all its operations there.
Since Snow utilizes small, single-engine aircraft to service its regional customers in a timely manner, being within walking distance of the hanger housing its planes has proven to be a significant advantage.
T. J. Snow Company entered the resistance welder manufacturing business when asked to take trade-ins on the new machines it sold as a manufacturers' representative. Prior to being offered for sale, the company reconditioned or completely stripped and rebuilt those machines, which gave the company much of the knowledge it needed to eventually build standard and special design resistance welders from scratch.
Rebuilt welders are still an important part of the company's offerings today, with over 300 used welders stored in a newly-constructed 12,000 square-foot warehouse equipped with a 15-ton crane.
The dramatic growth of automotive manufacturing in the Southeast since the 1980s helped accelerate the company's expansion into manufacturing new standard and special design resistance welders, which are commonly called multi-gun spot welders.
The special design resistance welder division grew under the guidance of Mark Pepping, VP of Sales, who had experience-building welders at another manufacturer prior to joining T. J. Snow Company 35 years ago.
The company has found success in selling to the Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers that typically surround automotive assembly plants. Machines for production of automotive and truck exhaust components are a specialty and, as an example, T. J. Snow recently furnished a special design multi-gun spot welder to the Tier 1 supplier that manufactures mufflers for the new 2014 Corvette. Currently on the floor is the second of two machines to seam weld the necks of shock absorbers.
In addition, T. J. Snow often builds machines used by companies that resistance weld products from fabricated steel wire, including automobile seat frames, store fixtures, oven racks, filter frames and tomato cages.
Among hundreds of other special machines produced over the years is one that securely spot welds reinforcing internal stiffeners for prison doors.
Stocking and distributing consumables and repair parts for resistance welders was a focus at its founding, and the T. J. Snow Company has maintained and grown that side of its business through the years. About half of its sales volume is comprised of parts and accessories, including electrodes, cables, monitors and retrofit controls.
T. J. Snow has a fulltime, dedicated Service Department offering on-call, quick-response welder and control service in customers' plants. Two of the company's service personnel are expert private pilots, and they often fly themselves and needed repair parts to a small airstrip close to the customer's plant.
In addition, the Service Department conducts one-day Regional Resistance Welding Seminars on a monthly basis at various locations around the country. Consulting and hands-on training are also offered.
Thomas J. (Tom) Snow, Jr., CEO and son of Jim Snow, will soon celebrate his 40th year in the business. In addition to Mark Pepping, other senior executives are David Hetzler, President/COO, James Dillard, VP Engineering & Manufacturing, and Sam Snow, third generation and Vice President/ IT Manager.
T. J. Snow Company, Inc.
120 Nowlin Lane
Chattanooga, TN 37421
423-894-6234 / 800-669-7669
welders@tjsnow.com
www.tjsnow.com