Across the country, gas utility infrastructure suppliers are a small community dominated by a handful of large-scale giants, but with the backing of DTE, one small diverse family-owned Michigan business has been playing ball with the big-league leaders.
Aaron’s Fabrication, based in Clinton Township, specializes in diverse manufacturing infrastructure solutions for leading gas utility companies, including residential, commercial, and rotary meter set assemblies, farm taps, industrial gate stations, pipe nipples, and meter mounting brackets. The company was founded nearly a decade ago by Sue Bursteinowicz and her husband Jim Gilliam, and is now led by their son, Aaron Bursteinowicz Gilliam.
The company’s history is relatively short when compared with its competitors. Since they began partnering with DTE, Aaron’s Fabrication has grown from a small business serving utilities in Michigan to an emerging national industry player.
“There are only about five big names in the industry nationwide, and they’ve all been around for 50 to 150 years,” said Vice President Aaron Bursteinowicz Gilliam. “Our partnership with DTE served as a launching pad for us to break into the national utility market.”
Getting selected to join Elevate, the DTE Diverse Supplier Mentorship program, enabled Aaron’s Fabrication, to align with DTE’s high safety and reliability standards — an important goal they needed to reach before being awarded contracts.
“DTE created a supplier mentorship program to directly work with local diverse-owned businesses and help expand local economies,” said Gilliam. “Our company joined the program in 2017 and spent five to six years learning the ropes from DTE’s senior leadership.”
Gilliam says Elevate places an emphasis on continuous improvement, sustainability, safety, and leading with integrity, and has unquantifiable benefits. The program also enabled the company to develop relationships with various DTE departments, which has led to contract expansion and more mentorship opportunities.
“DTE took us under their wing and helped us raise our company standards so that they could award us work,” said Gilliam.
Now, due to large orders from DTE, the company is adding 8 to 10 new employees to its 15-person team and has plans to grow its manufacturing facility to 35,000-45,000 square feet, nearly three and a half times the size of its current facility.
“DTE’s support to their suppliers fosters economic development and community improvement, which is very important to me,” he said. “Their commitment to working with local, diverse-owned businesses has a direct impact on job creation, which fuels growth for our Great Lakes state, and we’re so proud to be part of that process.”