according to Christie, who’s now its 36-
year-oldpresident.
“Things were really rolling well until we hit
2008,” he said. “Until Chrysler and GM
filed for bankruptcy, we had this dream of
doing everything really well and we were
making money and things were going great.
Then suddenly we were sitting around a
table as a three-shift operation and we had
to scale it back to two shifts and then back
toone shift.”
The business back then was 80 to 90
percent reliant on automotive customers,
but it’s since been diversified to include
other industries, with an ultimate goal of
reaching a 50/50or 40/60 split.
CMAC’s largest customers these days
include Johnson Controls, a Milwaukee-
based provider of energy and operational
efficiencies for buildings, lead-acid
automotive batteries and advanced
batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles and
interior systems for automobiles.
The relationship stretches back toCMAC’s
initial days as a formal entity, and Christie
said the unique partnership allows his
July-August 2014
| BusinessWorld | 67
