Frank Hasenfratz didn’t realize it then, however the sound of a washer in his Guelph, Ont., basement sparked the innovation that may launch Linamar Corp., now a $5.8-billion world auto-parts provider.
It was 1964. Hasenfratz, a refugee from Hungary and a machinist, had not too long ago stop his parts-making job in frustration after his employer did not decrease its scrap charges — a high quality metric that Hasenfratz would measure in his personal crops for the remainder of his life.
Decided to provide better-quality elements with much less waste, Hasenfratz, then 29, put his financial savings right into a $1,000 lathe to show his basement right into a makeshift manufacturing unit. The hum of the wringer washer close by led to an aha second. He eliminated its gearbox and rigged it onto the lathe together with a pulley and a counterweight in order that the gearbox might flip the chopping device as a substitute of an operator.
Inside a month, Hasenfratz and his do-it-yourself automation answer had fulfilled a fuel-pump order for Ford and generated sufficient money circulation to rent 4 staff, get a second machine, run the machines 24/7 and land a second contract.
- Watch the video beneath to see and listen to tributes to Frank Hasenfratz.
This ingenuity — together with an entrepreneurial spirit and an unceasing need to study — gave Hasenfratz, who died Jan. 8 at age 86 after an undisclosed sickness, a uncommon ability set that may flip him into one in every of Canada’s self-made billionaires.
“He was a large amongst us,” stated daughter and Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz at his Jan. 15 funeral. “A household man, a mentor, a pacesetter. He’ll be immeasurably missed.”
‘LOOK FOR THE SUNSHINE’
Born in 1935 in pre-war Hungary, Ferenc (Frank) Hasenfratz spent his teenagers repairing bikes with elements he constructed himself. Ever the entrepreneur, he loaned the mounted bikes earlier than returning them to their house owners.
Hasenfratz was an authorized machinist by the point he was conscripted into the Hungarian military in spring 1955. Close to the tip of his two-year service, Hasenfratz’s army unit joined the liberty fighters within the Hungarian Revolution. When the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, Hasenfratz fled to Austria, and in spring 1957 he departed Europe for Canada.
Frank Stronach, founding father of provider Magna Worldwide, had emigrated from Austria to Canada in 1954 to take a parallel path to auto-parts fame. Now 89, Stronach remembers Hasenfratz as a “pushed” businessman whose previous ensured he didn’t take alternatives as a right.
“Rising up in the course of the battle, and shortly after the battle, left a deep impression,” Stronach informed Automotive Information Canada. “Issues weren’t all the time rosy.”
Hasenfratz spent his first few weeks in Canada sleeping on a railway station bench, working odd jobs to earn cash. It was robust, however not like his military days.
“I wasn’t upset, I used to be joyful,” he stated at a 2012 occasion for his licensed biography Pushed to Succeed. “When unhealthy issues occur to you, search for the sunshine.”
A SIXTH SENSE
Hasenfratz had an ear for damaged tools in addition to alternative. At the same time as Linamar CEO, he might generally be discovered tinkering on a machine on the store flooring.
He sought good concepts from staff.
“Everytime you go right into a plant, you study one thing otherwise you train one thing. In case you don’t do both of these, it was a waste of time,” he stated in his biography.
He additionally had a sixth sense for good offers. By 1966, Hasenfratz constructed his first machine store — in his yard — and included his firm below the identify Linamar, after daughters Linda and Nancy and his spouse Margaret, who died in 2008.
Over time, Hasenfratz diversified Linamar’s elements manufacturing into aerospace, defence, agricultural and industrial tools. By the late Eighties, he had taken the corporate public and secured a number of consecutive multimillion-dollar offers with automakers, positioning Linamar for its future as a powerhouse in high-volume precision elements.
When the early Nineteen Nineties recession compelled some automakers to close down their in-house elements manufacturing, Hasenfratz was fast to choose up the enterprise. He centered on initiatives that required main investments in superior tooling and machining, extremely expert engineers and maximizing manufacturing capability.
Sustaining core experience whereas encouraging worker engagement and increasing geographically are amongst Hasenfratz’s legacies, stated Don Walker, former CEO of Aurora, Ont.-based provider Magna Worldwide.
So was his “trustworthy” manner. “I felt that if I had a handshake with Frank, you would take that to the financial institution,” Walker stated.
“He [was] an actual gentleman.” Hasenfratz based the Linamar for the Performing Arts program in 2002. It offers about 14,000 Guelph elementary college students two free tickets to native performances yearly.
He donated generously to Guelph Normal Hospital, colleges and numerous others that “didn’t make the headlines,” stated Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie. “Behind the scenes, he helped people who have been both actually in want or struggling.”
Guelph’s financial system is powerful and identified globally due to Linamar, stated Guthrie.
“Frank constructed his firm in the proper approach… a approach that revered individuals.”
After Linda Hasenfratz took over as CEO in 2002, Frank remained concerned within the enterprise as government chairman. That position was crammed by Linda as of Jan. 18.
In 2014, Frank Hasenfratz acquired the Order of Canada, and in 2016, he and Linda have been inducted into the Canadian Enterprise Corridor of Fame.
At his funeral, Linda shared the key to her father’s success: “Set daring targets and observe your progress. Deal with individuals with care and respect. Act rapidly. Observe up. Win new enterprise, on daily basis. Save and enhance, on daily basis.
“I take consolation that these classes are deeply embedded in all of us and can proceed to information our selections going ahead,” she stated.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece initially appeared within the February 2022 print version of Automotive Information Canada, revealed on Feb. 21, 2022.