industry packaging machine converters conveyor system engineering and it consulting founded 1885 headquarters st. louis missouri usa saint louis key people robert h. chapman chairman and ceo revenue 2.4 billion usd 2015 1 number of employees 11 000 2015 subsidiaries accraply barry wehmiller international design group bw papersystems bw container systems hayssen flexible systems pcmc pneumaticscaleangelus synerlink thiele technologies w d website www.barrywehmiller.com barry wehmiller companies is a global supplier of manufacturing technology and services based in st. louis missouri . in 2016 it was ranked no. 10 on the st. louis business journal s list of the city s top 150 privately held companies . 2 although it was founded in 1885 as a maker of machinery for the brewing industry since 1987 barry wehmiller has acquired more than 80 companies that provide equipment and services for a variety of industries packaging paper converting sheeting corrugating engineering and it consulting . barry wehmiller s chairman and ceo bob chapman is co author of the book everybody matters the extraordinary power of caring for your people like family . he regularly writes about issues relating to leadership and workplace culture on his blog truly human leadership . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1885 1975 1.2 rebuilding and growth through acquisition 1975 1987 1.3 truly human leadership 1987 present 2 subsidiary companies 3 references 4 external links history edit early history 1885 1975 edit by the 1880s st. louis missouri had become the third largest city in the united states in production of beer . the city would still hold that ranking by the end of the decade but within that time span its production would increase by almost a million barrels a year . that time period was one of rapid technological advancement in brewing not only in st. louis but all over the united states . the largest brewers in the city the lemp brewery and anheuser busch were beginning to utilize mechanical refrigeration in beer production and transport while more modern techniques of bottling and pasteurization would also help the product stay fresh longer for wider distribution . 3 it was within the midst of massive growth within the industry in 1885 that thomas barry bought into a machine shop that provided production equipment and repair service to local breweries . in 1890 barry s brother in law alfred wehmiller also joined the company and by 1897 both men purchased the company fully and it became the barry wehmiller machinery company . under the barry wehmiller partnership the company developed and began offering its own pasteurizers and bottle washers and grew from a regional to worldwide supplier . their customers not only included st. louis based breweries such as anheuser busch griesedieck brothers beer falstaff brewing corporation and hyde park but other national beer makers including joseph schlitz brewing company and miller brewing company . throughout the years of prohibition in the united states 1920 1933 barry wehmiller focused its attention on the soft drink and dairy industries as well as their international brewing business . 4 as market challenges caused the business to struggle into the 1950s the wehmiller family sold controlling interest in the company in 1957 to william chapman formerly an auditor for arthur anderson who had been hired as treasurer in 1953 . the company would continue to struggle until william chapman s sudden death of a heart attack in 1975 . 5 rebuilding and growth through acquisition 1975 1987 edit robert h. bob chapman joined barry wehmiller in 1969 at his father william chapman s request . bob chapman had previously been an accountant at price waterhouse . upon the elder chapman s death in 1975 his son assumed control of the company which was then worth 18 million . however within a month of bob chapman becoming ceo and chairman of the board of barry wehmiller the company s bank pulled their loan . despite these issues chapman was able to cut costs and improve financial performance to grow the company to 22 million in 1976 . 6 chapman also began investing in new technology such as solar energy . barry wehmiller developed a solar energy system to heat pasteurizers which became a high profile technology due to the energy crisis of the 1970s . anheuser busch was the first to purchase the system which was installed in its jacksonville florida brewery . by 1980 barry wehmiller s revenue grew to 71 million . 7 despite the company s growth by 1983 a number of factors began working against the company bringing its revenues down to 55 million . the consolidation of the brewing industry slowed sales of barry wehmiller s historic businesses and technical challenges in newly developed technologies were incurring rising warranty and development costs . facing a loss of 5 million the company s banks froze their line of credit and asked for repayment of their loans . 8 in 1984 chapman based on his admiration of chuck knight ceo of emerson electric began acquiring companies to expand barry wehmiller s markets and technology . because of the company s financial situation many of these acquisitions were in poor health but after a number of businesses were acquired their combined operations began to create profitable enterprises . 9 by 1986 the leaders many of barry wehmiller s acquisitions in the united kingdom saw an opportunity to take those companies public . in may 1987 the ipo of those companies took place on the london stock exchange in an offering that was oversubscribed 35 times 1.1 billion for 28 million in stock . barry wehmiller paid off its debt and was left with 28 million in cash . harvard business school has written a case study on the london ipo offering . 10 truly human leadership 1987 present edit after experiencing two near fatal crises in ten years chapman and barry wehmiller decided to continue to pursue their acquisition strategy and transform the company into one that made machinery to serve a variety of markets in the industrial packaging industry . the first acquisition of significance for barry wehmiller was pneumatic scale a publicly traded hundred year old business based in quincy massachusetts . over the next almost 30 years barry wehmiller would acquire 82 companies that are divided into 11 divisions pneumaticscaleangelus hayssen flexible systems bw container systems bw papersystems accraply thiele technologies paper converting machine company design group barry wehmiller international synerlink and winkler dunnebier . 11 in the early 2000s bob chapman began to focus on changing the corporate culture of barry wehmiller by adopting a more people centered approach to business . the company drafted a cultural vision statement the guiding principles of leadership which declares we measure success by the way we touch the lives of others . in 2003 in an effort to bolster its workplace culture transformation the company launched an internal learning institute barry wehmiller university which offers classes in leadership listening empathy building creating a service mindset and more for its team members . bob chapman and barry wehmiller s cultural transformation story was written about in simon sinek s 2014 book leaders eat last . chapman and co author raj sisodia the co author and co founder of conscious capitalism released their book everybody matters the extraordinary power of caring for your people like family in october 2015 . the book tells the story of barry wehmiller s business history that led to chapman s change in leadership as well as detailing many of the company s internal cultural programs . inc. magazine also called chapman one of 15 writers shaping how we think about leadership . 12 forbes called everybody matters one of the best business books of 2015 . 13 in 2016 bob chapman was awarded industryweek manufacturing talent leadership award . 14 subsidiary companies edit barry wehmiller international 1 b wi specializes in providing enterprise engineering ptc & plm solutions . b wi was established in the year 1994 under the former marquip now marquipwardunited as an internally focused extension of the engineering and information technology teams . references edit our business . retrieved 2016 04 29 . the 2016 top 150 privately held companies in st. louis . bizjournals.com . march 25 2016 . retrieved 25 march 2016 . st. louis brews second ed . . pp. 12 14 . st. louis brews second ed . . p. 250 . chapman bob 2015 . everybody matters . portfolio penguin . pp. 23 26 . chapman bob 2015 . everybody matters . portfolio penguin . pp. 26 27 . chapman bob 2015 . everybody matters . portfolio penguin . pp. 28 29 . chapman bob 2015 . everybody matters . portfolio penguin . pp. 31 32 . chapman bob 2015 . everybody matters . portfolio penguin . pp. 35 36 . chapman bob 2015 . everybody matters . portfolio penguin . p. 37 . our companies . barry wehmiller . murphy shawn . inc magazine . 15 writers shaping how we think about leadership . burkus david . 15 best business books of 2015 . forbes . penton s industryweek announces winners of manufacturing and technology corporate awards . yahoo finance . external links edit official site retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title barry wehmiller & oldid 729092701 categories companies based in missourimanufacturing companies of the united statesservice companies of the united states navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last 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