Hayes Manufacturing Inc.

In 1966, Ray and Betty Hayes (along with Ray’s brother Clay) opened a machine shop called RayClay Manufacturing in a small garage in Rochester, Michigan. They started out working part-time while maintaining other jobs. Clay was with the business a few months before deciding to leave the business to focus on his full-time job at Chrysler. Ray and Betty continued to build the business as a “job-shop” (manufacturing for hire) until it eventually became a full-time endeavor. Soon, they were busy enough that their sons, Jeff and Jim, would come on board to help them keep up with the demands of the growing company. In 1973, Ray and Betty sold Rayclay Manufacturing to Jeff and Jim and they moved the business north to Manton, Michigan and reopened as Hayes Manufacturing, Inc. The brothers dug the footings for their new building in anticipation of the official opening in June of 1973. They hired a couple of employees and Jim focused on shop production and efficiency while Jeff worked the phones to find new business to grow the company. Jeff’s wife, Carol, ran all aspects of the office until Jim’s wife, Marilyn, came on board in 1978 to help out with customer service. During the years from 1973 to 1981, the business focused on job-shop work and built a loyal clientele. However, it was difficult to predict (or control) the ups and downs that are typical of this type of work. In 1981, business was slow and Jeff was making “cold calls” (on his Mickey Mouse phone) to look for work from a steel supplier’scustomer list. One of the few people to take his call was Mr. Wilde of Wilde Manufacturing. He did not have any “part” work but he mentioned that he was having trouble with a shaft coupling on a pickle harvester. He wondered if Jeff knew of a coupling manufacturer that made a better product. Jeff asked Mr.