Mokena, IL - Founder Jack Gleason made jobsite deliveries in his personal van every morning on his way to open the door of the Electrical Fastener Company. Today, with its fleet of 15 vehicles, ELFCO makes as many as 250 deliveries each day.
A van, box truck or flatbed with the distinctive Elf logo can be seen throughout the Chicagoland area on Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) jobs, O'Hare International Airport projects, over miles of freeway construction and at high-visibility sites on Chicago's famous Lake Shore Drive - or around landmarks like Soldier Field, home of the NFL's Bears - as well as on sites of all sizes in between.
"Our customers know if they buy it today, they'll have it tomorrow," points out Mike Gleason, one of four second generation family members in the business today. "We've built a loyal following that way."
ELFCO has also built a loyal following by delivering to sites where the job is building a career and laying a foundation in a specialized trade. Among its most important customers are two specialized training centers, the Union 597 pipefitters training center and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Electrical Contractors Association of Chicago (IBEW-NECA) Technical Institute.
The training of apprentice and journeymen in both trades is essential to the continued success of construction projects now and in the future, and ELFCO has signed on to play a significant role.
"We have been working with ELFCO for about five years," explains Michael Doyle, a longtime instructor at the pipefitters' training center. "They are our tool suppliers - whatever we need from basic hand tools to power tools. We've come to rely on them for a lot of things; knowing that even if it's a last-minute request they'll come through."
The backbone of the ELFCO and Union 597 relationship is a project to provide apprentices with a complete set of the basics they need to get started. "We require the apprentices to have certain tools," Doyle points out, "and, because these are tools that will stay with them as they progress we want them to be high-quality, reliable products. About five years ago we began working with ELFCO to put together, in a 5-gallon plastic bucket, a starter kit for each student. We went to them with a list of what we wanted in each bucket, and they worked with us to put the kits together.