Congressman Williams visits Sherrill Manufacturing

SHERRILL, N.Y. — Sherrill Manufacturing President and Madison County Vice Chairman Matt Roberts welcomed U.S. Rep. Brandon Williams, R-22, to the company this week as part of Williams’ tour of manufacturing facilities in Central New York. SMI is one of several manufacturers Williams has toured to promote the return of manufacturing to the 22nd district It includes Onondaga, Madison and Oneida counties.

“I’ve actually toured two manufacturers in Oneida County today,” Williams said. “Briggs and Stratton have doubled their workers here in the past three years. It’s a tremendous investment right here in Central New York in manufacturing. I just can’t thank you enough for your investment, for your investment in the future of New York. It’s absolutely critical that we keep jobs here.”

Sherrill Manufacturing, Inc. operates under the brand name Liberty Tabletop and is a manufacturer of flatware located in Sherrill. It’s the only flatware manufacturer in the United States. The company sells about 500,000 utensils a year to the federal government, mainly for use in American military bases around the world through the General Services Administration.

Roberts thanked Williams for his ongoing support with a recent contract dispute.

“We want to thank Congressman Williams for all his efforts with the GSA contract,” Roberts said. “Earlier this year, we were having some problems getting the contract approved. And we called his office. Literally, within a week, we were in the final throes of the contract. And the first day after the contract was awarded a million dollars’ worth of orders showed up on our email. It really helped kickstart the business season here in Sherrill.”

Roberts displayed a new piece of automated equipment that will help increase SMI’s efficiency. The Marq 4, Roberts said, is a more mechanical and less labor-intensive automated machine in SMI installed in collaboration with Marquardt Switches in Cazenovia.

“It’s not our last robot but it’s our first robot,” Roberts said. “They installed this machine, which makes our job a lot easier. It increases our production by 50 percent. It’s a much more repeatable process. It’s given us so much back as far as production.”

Williams said the 2022 CHIPS Act will help increase domestic technical jobs.

President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 into law in August 2022. The bill earmarked more than $50 billion in manufacturing, research and development, and workforce development investments to strengthen and expand the U.S. semiconductor industry amid a global microchip shortage.

Semiconductors, or chips, are tiny electronic devices essential to America’s economic and national security. These devices power tools ranging from light switches to smartphones or fighter jets.

Semiconductors power consumer electronics, automobiles, data centers, critical infrastructure, and virtually all military systems. They are also essential building blocks of the technologies including artificial intelligence, biotechnology and clean energy.

The United States is a global leader in semiconductor design, research and development, but it has lagged behind in manufacturing. The U.S. now accounts for only about 10 percent of global commercial production. None of the most advanced logic and memory chips that power PCs, smartphones, and supercomputers are manufactured at commercial scale in the United States.

“One of the things this represents is standing up to the communists, to the Chinese,” Williams said. “One of these is repatriating jobs to Central New York. It’s critical to our nation and critical to our community. As a former submarine commander standing up to China. We are seeing the fruits of that we’re bringing back this type of manufacturing it was completely lost from America but it’s back.”

In 2010, Roberts and CEO Gregory Owens filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and temporarily ceased all production. In June 2014, SMI moved its government and contract manufacturing operations from Mexico back to the Sherrill facility, increasing its workforce to 42. The company moved from six-week production stints to daily production. By 2015, SMI had more than quadrupled its workforce.

The company has moved to an internet-based direct sales model, marketing its items to consumers looking for products made in the USA. Its products are sold through Amazon and Wayfair as well as on its Liberty Tabletop website, which alone is on track to reach $2 million.

In 2020, sales of Liberty Tabletop flatware doubled due to more people eating at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales increased by a further 50% year-on-year in 2021.

Williams congratulated Roberts and the SMI staff on their accomplishments.

“I tell people that we want jobs so that our children and our grandchildren can stay here, grow their families here and even bring back families as we bring back the transformation of Central New York,” he said. “It’s not just Micron, it’s up and down the I-90 corridor, particularly right here in Oneida County.”

Roberts said he is working with SMI’s workforce development staff to find and develop practical job skills.

“Really, what we need is not people with college degrees,” he said. “Even if you’ve gone to technical schools, you need on-the-job training. If you look at the Marq 4, you think, ‘Oh boy, this looks easy.’ But the back part of the office, the machinists, the tool makers, the electrical engineers, the programmers, the people who build this stuff, that’s really on-the-job training.”