History

METCOM Inc. was started in 1977 as Howland Manufacturing Corporation of Tennessee. This was a division of Howland Manufacturing Corporation, a Nebraska-based company. W.R. “Bill” Howland was the president and Loren Aschbrenner was the vice president. They were the only stockholders of the new corporation with Loren relocating to Tennessee to build and manage the new business. At that time, Fleetguard was the only customer.

 

We were set up to spin their heavy-duty air filter end caps in a 6000 square foot building on C.C. Camp Road. With the addition of new customers, we were forced to add an additional 7700 square foot expansion onto the existing building. In 1982, Loren and his wife Jan purchased Bill Howland’s controlling interest and a year later changed the company name to METCOM Inc.

 

We added our first press for stamping and deep drawing in 1984. This opened new growth opportunities for Metcom. In 1988, we purchased a 26,000 square foot facility that was previously owned by Wilson Sporting Goods and moved to 1920 Fisk Road. This expansion satisfied our needs for only 2 years. In 1990, we added an additional expansion of 12,500 so we could have room for our first automated press line and parts washer. In 1992, we added on again to give our employees a new lunchroom, rest rooms and a training room on the upper level in addition to increased production area.

 

As the business continued to grow, we again became too crowded to operate efficiently. We made the decision to add a 26,000 square foot addition and to completely rearrange the shop floor for flow and efficiency. This move was completed in August of 1997 and brought our total square footage up to 75,000. In May 2002, we purchased a former AquaTech building that gave us more space for expansion. We moved into this building, at 2178 Fisk Road, in March of 2003.

 

In October of 1998, we received our QS-9000 certification, which proved that we were a world-class manufacturing facility. In July 2006, in response to QS-9000 becoming obsolete by year end, we received our ISO 9001:2000 certification. Continuing with that, we achieved our ISO 9001:2015 certification to give us a system to ensure a strong processes and promote continual improvement.

 

Since our beginnings, we have also added our own product line of filter components which has helped us increase our customer base to around 90 active customers, including 80 filter companies. Our customers span across the US, Mexico, South America, Canada, Europe, and Australia.