Investing for success

In the December 2024/January 2025 issue of ISMR, Paul Johnson (CEO, Wilson Tool - pictured on the left) and Jason Semerad (the company’s newly appointed Chief Commercial Officer or CCO, pictured on the right) discussed a dynamic strategy for growth, new sheet metal tooling innovations, recent acquisitions and global market trends with ISMR.

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Wilson Tool International, the largest independent manufacturer of tooling systems for the bending, punching and stamping industries, celebrated 55 years in business in 2021. Through numerous acquisitions and expansions, it grew to include offices and plants across the world. Products are manufactured at the company’s global headquarters at White Bear Lake, Minn., USA, as well as manufacturing facilities in England; Canada; Brazil and Italy.

Innovation came in tandem with business expansion, with patents for the first “shimless” punch assembly; the first punch press tooling with interchangeable punch tips; forming tools that rolled on (rather than penetrating) the sheet and many others. To date, the company has been granted 91 patents. Since 1966, it has been a leading provider of tooling solutions designed to enhance the performance of sheet metal fabricating machinery worldwide.

At the October 2024 EuroBLECH exhibition in Hanover, Germany, ISMR sat down with Paul Johnson (CEO, Wilson Tool) and Jason Semerad, the company’s newly appointed Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). A dynamic company strategy for growth, new sheet metal tooling innovations, recent acquisitions and global market trends all came under the spotlight during the discussion.

A new acquisition

Wilson Tool recently confirmed the acquisition of PASS Stanztechnik AG (PASS), a manufacturer of precision punch press tooling based in Creußen, Germany. PASS provides punching tools and custom solutions that are compatible with TRUMPF, Salvagnini and Thick Turret systems worldwide.

This strategic acquisition strengthens Wilson Tool’s product portfolio, service, manufacturing capabilities and ability to deliver solutions and support to customers worldwide. The combination of the two companies will boost Wilson Tool’s presence in the European market and enable PASS to expand its technology tool set and accelerate its buildout of a more extensive global footprint. The combined strength of their respective patent catalogues, global design teams and manufacturing capabilities will extend a strong history of innovation and delivery of technological advances for both companies.

“PASS is a wonderful company, with the same culture, innovation drive and values as Wilson Tool. It is a perfect match for us. We have so much to learn from each other that will benefit customers in the long term. As family-owned businesses, Wilson Tool and PASS AG share foundational values centred on customer service, quality, innovation and the wellbeing of our employees. We will be using both manufacturing facilities and will support PASS customers as one team, although the market will still see two separate brands,” Paul Johnson, CEO of Wilson Tool, told ISMR at EuroBLECH in Hanover.

Jason Semerad, Wilson Tool’s new CCO, agreed with this assessment.

“Our message to customers, partners and employees is that nothing will change. They will experience no disruption in their current business activities. There is room for both Wilson Tool and PASS in the market. Our focus is on global expansion and increased market share. PASS’s OEM connections and support levels are excellent; we aim to expand those relationships and offer greater levels of connection and support to both PASS and Wilson Tool’s OEM partners and customers,” he added.

An eye on innovation

Wilson Tool brought several tooling innovations to the October 2024 EuroBLECH exhibition in Hanover, Germany. These included its new electric clamp; new multi-tools and tapping tools as well as extra press brake tooling styles.

“We have released more new products in the last twelve months than we have in a long time….,” Paul Johnson explained. “This is a very exciting time for Wilson Tool. We have renewed and refocused our energy into growing our markets in the sheet metal business. I see so many new potential opportunities for our business. The PASS acquisition feeds into this, but we have also focused on technology innovations as we aim for growth.”

“Right now, we have 50 focused innovation projects in the hopper. We aspire to get at least 5% of our revenue from new products. We now have a new leadership team and are really scaling the company for growth. We will match increased commercialisation activities with our technological innovations and focus on more investment in marketing, getting messages out to customers and partnering with more OEMs and customers as we bring future innovations to market. This will also open new markets for us,” added Jason Semerad.

He confirmed that the company has several R&D projects running that involve examining how artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially help to simplify tooling and make it easier to use for future machine operators. It is putting a lot of time, development and research into company continuous improvement programmes focused on how these could provide benefits to its customers.

“We are always looking for stronger materials; longer tool life; less sharpening; fewer tooling changeovers; more durable tool coatings; more versatility; the ability to do multiple processes in one strike etc. Smart tooling, automation, software and data mean a fluid market, so we must be adaptable enough to fit our tooling seamlessly into our OEM partner systems. It is a close partnership and a different focus, in terms of innovation. Whether we are talking about robotics, changing/identifying tools, tool storage etc., we are prepared for this,” he told ISMR.

Sustainability is one of the key values of the family which owns Wilson Tool. This philosophy filters down into its day-to-day organisational activities, as well as its product development (such as replacement of just the tips, not the entire punch, of its EXP punch tooling). It has also sought new partnerships with material suppliers that comply with more aggressive ESG goals (especially in Europe).

A global reach

Wilson Tool has its eye on several markets as it looks for new ways to expand its market reach. It has identified broad trends, such as electrification and the AI boom in electronics markets.

“We are hoping that, with lower interest rates, we will begin to see renewed housing starts so that we can go back to our traditional core mature markets such as HVAC. We can also look at booming and emerging markets. It is about driving the depth and breadth of our portfolio, as well as our technical knowledge and global customer support,” outlined Jason Semerad.

“With two brands (Wilson Tool and PASS), we will be able to take a different approach in different markets. We are currently assessing the joint coverage and opportunities for both companies. We feel that PASS has room to grow globally. It is one of the market leaders in Europe and there is a lot of growth potential for PASS in emerging markets such as South America and Asia,” added Paul Johnson.

Wilson Tool is also investing in Europe, as it feels there is more potential for growth there.

“We have a lot of room to grow in Europe, from a market share perspective. We are beginning to hit our stride with our press brake tooling and are adding a lot of capacity to our press brake capability (for special and standard tooling). We have just invested heavily in our North American/Canadian manufacturing facility that makes press brake clamping and crowning systems. We have more than doubled our capacity there and that move should be complete by the end of 2024,” commented Jason Semerad.

Wilson Tool is also entering new markets for larger tooling and continues to invest in new press line equipment for its special tooling lines.

Challenges and opportunities

However, with increased growth plans, investment and organisational scale-ups, there are also several challenges to address.

To read the rest of this interview in ISMR’s December 2024/January 2025 issue, please see https://joom.ag/Vg7d/p24