With three operating companies and five locations throughout Minnesota and Iowa — including Brainerd — ATEK is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2021.
That’s 75 years of technology innovation, 75 years of high-quality products and 75 years of community involvement.
“We’re pretty diversified in terms of technologies that we use and the markets that we serve,” co-owner and CEO Mark Osmanski said during a Skype interview Tuesday, Jan. 19. “Our products do go around the world, and we manufacture all of them in the upper Midwest.”
ATEK Companies includes ATEK Access Technologies, ATEK Metal Technologies and Solar Plastics.
The company grew from Acrometal, a metal stamping company founded in 1946 in Minneapolis. While running that business, Fred Bieber got the opportunity to buy it out. Today, Bieber’s son, Bill Bieber, is one of the three co-owners of the company, along with Osmanksi and Kay Phillips.
Bill Bieber joined his dad in the metal stamping business in 1965, and the two grew ATEK Companies from there.
“Bill was really the entrepreneurial spirit that grew this company,” Osmanski said.
Patricia Hennes welds a wall switch Wednesday, Jan. 20, at ATEK Access Technologies in Brainerd. Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch
In 1977, operations moved to Brainerd, and the plant in northeast Brainerd continues to run as manufacturing headquarters for ATEK Access Technologies.
“Inside this business it constitutes all of the proprietary products that we design, manufacture and sell to the end users. And we predominantly are into electronic devices of a variety of sorts,” Osmanski said.
Products made at the Brainerd location include accessible wall switches that open doors, along with floor mats that do the same and regular custom floor mats for a variety of companies. During a tour of the facility Wednesday, Jan. 20, employee Steve Scofield showed off some of his recently completed mats, like one with “Do not enter” signs, set to be shipped to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.
The company’s presence in the lakes area dates back to 1969, when it acquired the company Larco.
“That brand is pretty well known in the presence-sensing,” Osmanski said. “So these are pressure-sensitive mats that were originally used to open doors. And so we also offer a line of wall…
Read More: 75 years of technology innovation: ATEK Companies continues growth