Caid 60th Anniversary Party

Celebrating 60 years in business

20070421

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The Experience

Caid Industries planned a 60th anniversary celebration of T.A. Caid and Sons being in business. Luckily, Kathleen and I were invited to attend. We were happy to get out of the gloom and overcast of Seattle so we flew into town for the party.

Earlier in the day, we were invited to attend a tour of the current Caid Industries manufacturing facility. More information on Caid Industries can be found on their web site http://www.tacaid.com

The company has been through (at least) 3 re-brandings since the name included "Caid". First, it was "T. A Caid and Sons, Inc." Later, it was just "Caid and Sons, Inc." and now "Caid Industries". According to the Caid Industries' web site:

Since 1947, CAID Industries, one of the largest specialty manufacturers in the Southwest, has been providing custom design and fabrication, as well as high-volume, repetitive manufacturing, to your design criteria or supplied drawings. CAID provides you with both the expertise and the wide range of services required to solve your most complex problems. At CAID, your project team includes in-house, registered engineers; project managers and design detailers. We stand ready to help you gain or retain your competitive edge. Our five contracting licenses - general engineering contracting, structural steel erection, tank fabrication, ventilation work and sheet metal work - enable us to keep large, complex projects in-house. The result: savings in time and cost. We also hold three ASME Code stamps for shop and field welding of tanks, piping and boilers.

The objective of the party was several fold. First, it was to celebrate the successful operation of the company. Both past and previous employees were invited to attend. Second, it was to tell the current employees "thanks" for their hard work. Over 200 folks attended the party and by any metric, it was a success. The photos below are what we saw.

This is the front of the old facility, now sold and subsequently leased to several small businesses. When in operation, the public door was on the right with the "front office" operations being the lower right 1/2 of the building. Upstairs was storage, a small planning and estimation office and a lunchroom. In the early, early days the upstairs was our home and contained small living quarters. The name on the building has been painted over with white paint.

This is a side view of the facility looking west. The brick portion of the building was the main office and living quarters. The Quonset hut part was where the acutal work took place and housed all the machinery, raw materials and assembly areas. After the company moved to its current location, the building was carved into 2 facilities. The front brick area was leased as office space and the Quonset hut area was turned into a popular bar called, appropriately enough "The Hut".

Across the street used to be O'Malley's Lumber, now O'Malley's bar and a storage and maintenance facility for the recently installed Old Pueblo Trolley.

The trolley was a shock to me as I had not been in this area of town for 10+ years. The trolley goes from this area to the gates of the University of Arizona several miles away and is used to carry students, tourists and drunks (consisting of students and tourists). The 4th Avenue area is now the restaurant and bar zone of town and hosts weekly "club crawls".

The whole area, which used to be "the bad part of town" is now quite gentrified. Here a group gets a tour of the area on Segway scooters.

Caid Industries rented "The Hut" for the entire afternoon and had tons of tasty Mexican food, a live band and an open bar.

Bill Caid and Bill Assenmacher. I am not associated with Caid Industries and have never been part of the family business. Bill A, however, has had the executive responsibility for the growth and success of the firm after my father retired. He is CEO/GM and has grown the business to nearly $30M in revenue. Currently, the company is one of the largest employers in the area and has 275 employees between its facility in Tucson and the sister operation in Chile. Caid Industries is the industry leader in electro plating cathode manufacturing for the copper industry. Additionally, it is well known among the construction and heavy industry circles as a premium provider of precision design and metal fabrication services.

Bill Assenmacher did it up right in getting 4 separate cakes each of a different flavor. Here, the current branding is displayed.

Jim and Janine Caid. Sorry about the intruding elbow which, by the look of it, belongs to Kathleen.

Bill, Jill and Jim Jr.

Les Caid (my cousin) at left with Larry Woods (my brother in law and Altar Desert veteran) on the right. Les is currently the head of Rural-Metro fire for the state of Arizona and also has a team in Medford, OR. Larry is an ex-banker turned nursery owner in Tucson.

Assenmacher addresses the troops prior to the cake-cutting ceremony. From left to right: Bill A, Bob, Bill, Jim Sr. and Jim Jr.

Never get me near an open mike. I had to offer my two cents as well. Bill A has done a great job of growing the company to its current success levels. In my words: "...the success of the company is borne on the shoulders of its employees and is a result of their hard work, skill and diligence".

The cake cutting begins.

Gladly it did not require large amounts of skill to cut the cake.

Kathleen Jones, Jim Caid, John Caid's wife Teri and Janine Caid.

Another Caid clan member with Kathleen Jones.

Janine, John and Teri. John is my cousin and currently runs the Fish and Game Department for the Apache Tribe from Pine Top, AZ.

Bill discusses business with Rob Assenmacher (Bill's son) and Rob's girlfriend.

I consider the implication of another beer. In the end, I decided to pass since I was driving. But even without the extra beer, this was a great party.

This was a great party and tons of fun. The food was good, the band was good and it was great to see the family again. There were folks here that were relatives that I never knew existed. And, I got a chance to see some of my closer relatives that I have not seen in many years.

Kudos and thanks to Bill Assenmacher and his staff for planning and executing this great celebration of the success of the company.

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