Manufacturers supply the will, and Everett supplies the way

Big corporate names rely on cutting tools made by a small Warren company.
TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
WARREN -- The company slogan is "Sever It With Everett," and that's exactly what manufacturers the world over have been doing for more than 40 years.
Everett Industries, makers of abrasive wheels and machines that cut metal products, has been on the cutting edge of its field since 1962.
Everett customers include companies from all over the world, including Canada, Australia, Japan, Turkey, Vietnam, Israel, India and Russia.
Its products are used by Hershey Foods, Thermo King, Jolly Green Giant, Disneyland, Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, Caterpillar, A.J. Foyt, Gucci handbags and various golf club manufacturers.
"You can go on forever because everyone has a manufacturing facility ... and any kind of structural device has to be cut, whether it's steel, aluminum or plastic," said Roy Williams, vice president of the company.
Goods that are cut with Everett products include copper tubing, golf club shafts and railroad rails.
One customer used an Everett machine to cut old sections of cable that had been replaced on the Golden Gate Bridge to sell as souvenirs.
Passed-down business
Bill Everett, president of the company, said his father, Chuck, served as president of Beaver Pipe Tools until the owner decided to sell the company in 1960. Chuck Everett bought the abrasive cutting division of Beaver Pipe Tools, which he had helped start, rented office and manufacturing space from Warren Steel Specialties on Niles Road and started his own company, Everett Industries.
Bill Everett was still in junior high school at the time and helped out at the business.
"I could walk over to the plant [after school] and catch a ride home with dad and build machines in the meantime," he said.
Bill Everett went to school at Bradley and Kent State universities and worked in consumer electronics before returning to Everett Industries in 1978.
Everett Industries' current 37,000-square-foot plant on Larchmont Avenue, across from Delphi Packard Electric Systems, was built in 1965.
Development
The company, which originally made only cut-off machines, started making abrasive cut-off wheels for use in the machines in 1967, the year Williams started working at the company. The wheels, made of an abrasive material, do the cutting instead of a blade.
"It was certainly a profitable [move] because from the early '70s to the early '80s, we ran double shifts making cut-off wheels because of the demand," Williams said.
Williams said foreign competition has cut into their business, but Everett hangs onto its share of the market by making a quality product. It has 13 employees.
Everett said there are three other manufacturers of cut-off machines in the United States.