Jeffery T. Ferry is doing something that comes naturally to members of the Ferry Family - he's manufacturing fasteners.

"Fastener Manufacturing gets in your blood," Said the 34-year old Mr Ferry, who is president of Telefast Industries Inc. He launched the company in 1986 and today Telefast is turning out huge quantities of nuts, an estimated 100 million a year, Mr. Ferry said.

Growth is forcing the company to look for a 50,000 square-foot factory, probably in Berea or Strongsville, Mr. Ferry said. Telefast now operates a 22,000 Square-foot plant on North Rocky River Drive in Berea and a small distribution center in Cleveland.

"We started with one nut-forming machine and five employees," Mr. Ferry said. "Today the company has 11 forming machines and 48 employees."

His family would be proud. Mr. Ferry is the fourth generation of Ferrys who have been active in the fastener industry. His Great grandfather, Thomas J. Ferry, started Ferry Cap & Set Screw Co. on Scranton Road in the flats in the 1890s.

A machinist by trade, Thomas Ferry pioneered a fastener production process called cold heading, which still is the primary method used to make screws and bolts.

But young Mr. Ferry is facing a challenge his great grandfather didn't contend with: foreign competition.

Mr. Ferry launched Telefast seven years ago after working several years with his father, William Ferry, in the fastener distribution industry. When he decided to enter the manufacturing arena, he said his strategy was to emphasize product quality and customer service.

That strategy was essential for Telefast, as the company went head-to-head with the bane of the domestic industry, low priced imported fasteners.

This (Cleveland) used to be the nut-and-bolt capital of the world but, over the last 15 years the United States has lost 50% of its fastener industry," Mr. Ferry said. "But I thought that there has got to be a market for domestic nuts."

The market for American-made fasteners does exist and the industry has experienced some comeback from the dark days of the early 1980s, according to Dick Scofield, director of the industrial Fastener Institute here.

Mr.Scofield said fastener industry employment is now about 50,000 up from 35,000 in the early 1980s, but down from 75,000 during the industry's hey-day in the mid 1970s.

Mr Ferry said Telefast's growth is the results of skilled employees and first-rate vendors such as USS/Kobe Steel Co. in Lorain.

"We also found growth through diversification." he added. "We are evenly split between four markets - structural, distribution, original equipment manufacturers and the aftermarket."

Mr. Ferry said the company had a good 1993 and expects substantial gains in 1994. He declined to reveal the company's sales figures.

Plant manager Dennis Armstrong credits Telefast's lean management for helping to fuel growth.

"While we've been growing, some major nut companies have gone under," said Mr. Armstrong. "I wear a blue shirt on the shop floor. We are doing it the way our fathers did it.

If blood lines mean anything, they should help Telefast.

After Mr. Ferry's great grandfather patented a cold-heading process, Thomas Ferry's son, Edward W. Ferry, developed a production method for making screws out of hard to work with stainless steel.

Edward Ferry eventually sold his stock in Ferry Cap & Set Screw and in 1935 started E.W.Ferry Screw Products Inc. in Brook Park, a company that went out of business in the mid-1980s. The late E.W. Ferry was elected to the Industrial Fastener Hall of Fame in Columbus.

End of Crain's Cleveland Business article, January 17 1994
By David Prizinsky

To bring you up to date, Telefast has continued it's growth and we have built a new manufacturing facility to our own specifications. Working conditions are much better in the new plant. Along with the extra room, workflow is greatly improved as is the air quality and lighting.