WINN MACHINE
The Winn Machine team ventured out during the slowdown as a way to stay engaged and keep employees active.
“During this time, Damon called on everyone at Winn to be a salesperson, saying ‘You have to have family, friends and acquaintances that work at businesses that need our parts,’” says Dina Gasaway who owns Winn with her husband. “We cleaned the shop from top to bottom, stem to stern, and when there was nothing left to clean, we all went to Stone Lake Beach in the morning and cleaned the beach.”
The lifelong residents of LaPorte County took over the precision machining business in 1999. It was launched by Dina’s parents, Marty and Virginia Winn in 1979, originally as Winn Welding and Machine in a rented section of Ringles’ Auto in The Pines.
“The secret to 40-plus years has been solving problems. Damon never says no to a customer,” Dina says. “Our team has been able to get parts to customers in less than one to two hours from seeing the blueprint to delivering the parts. Everyone at Winn shares in the pride of being a manufacturing hero to our customers.”
Winn provides comprehensive manufacturing services, such as grinding, drilling, milling, finishing, assembly and steel and aluminum machining.
“Our business is all about relationships. We have been in business more than 40 years and some of our customers have been here just as long,” Dina says. “Making quality parts or components at a fair price with service above expectations has kept Winn competitive and in business.”
Investing in people and innovations has helped build a strong foundation to stand strong against COVID.
“Our sales decreased by 70 percent at times. We are thankful for the government support to help keep everyone working and ease the financial burden through PPP and restructuring loans with our bank,” Dina says. “Winn invests in quality people and equipment because if we don’t, someone else will, and then they have the advantage.”
Along with the financial assistance and team effort, Winn has worked with Sharp Wilkinson Marketing to boost its online presence and upgrade its website.
“As the economy and business rebound to whatever the new normal is, we expect to be very busy and are strategically planning to handle the new volume.”
Winn Machine
720 Boyd Blvd. in La Porte