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Standard Bolt finds new home in East Valley
Family-owned business looks to expand in Mesa
Publication: East Valley Tribune; Date: 08/21/2004
By LYNN DUCEY
Standard Bolt, a thirdgeneration family business firm, is shifting into high gear, moving its headquarters from Phoenix to east Mesa to allow for growth and expansion.
The company supplies distributors and builders with a range of hand-polished chrome plated bolts and fasteners used in the construction of motorcycles and other equipment.
“When they come to us, they start out black. We make them smooth and pretty and put chrome on them. Everybody wants them,” said Taylor Anderson, vice president.
At 31, Taylor Anderson is the eldest son in the Anderson father-son trio. Taylor, his father, Eric, and his younger brother, Seth, all run the company that was founded almost 30 years ago by the young men’s grandparents.
The firm first supplied manufacturers of military equipment with parts. And while Boeing is still among its clients, the company has tapped into the growing market of niche motorcycles, with Orange County Choppers among the company’s top buyers.
“Bikers don’t really spare any expense, so that’s lucky for us,” Taylor Anderson said.
Perhaps little known to an average consumer, the company supplies top motorcycle builders and firms in the Valley with parts, including Bourget’s, a North Phoenix manufacturer that makes more than 1,000 bikes a year, and Paul Yaffe, a custom motorcycle builder.
“It’s growing like crazy. That’s the cool thing,” Seth Anderson said.
Just over a decade ago, the company employed 11 people. Now, there are 55 workers and space is at a premium. Located in a Phoenix industrial park off 40th Street, Standard Bolt leases two buildings and has a total of about 7,200 square feet.
This fall, the company will move into an existing 25,000 square-foot building in the Dover Industrial Park at the northwest corner of Greenfield and McDowell Roads in east Mesa.
“Logistically, it’s going to be a big improvement. To be able to plan out a manufacturing facility for our needs is really going to help us out,” Taylor Anderson said.
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| NUTS AND BOLTS OPERATION: Top, Chrome-plated bolts hang from a magnet at Standard Bolt in Phoenix. |
The need for additional room, the availability and size of the facility and its proximity to the 202 all played a role in the decision to relocate, Anderson said.
“We’re all from Mesa, we grew up here and it’s a growing area. It will be really nice to be under one roof,” said Anderson, who graduated from Mountain View High S chool along with his younger brother.
The company’s profile in the biking world is also taking off, with the company’s motorcycle — a Hot Match Custom built by Matt Hotch of Fullerton, Calif. — featured on the cover of the “Dream Girls 2005" calendar and a coffee table book entitled “The Art of the Chopper.” And while there may be some parallels between the two father-son trios, both Seth and Taylor say their relationship with their dad is nothing like the bickering between Paul Sr., Paulie and Mikey that can be seen on the Discovery Channel’s Orange County Choppers show.
“We don’t fight nearly as much,” Taylor Anderson said.
“Yeah, we’d never get anything done,” Seth Anderson said.
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| Above, Seth Anderson, left, and Taylor Anderson, are involved in the family-owned Standard Bolt, which is moving its headquarters to Mesa. |
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