Cherne

The program has now doubled in size since its launch last year, expanding its impact on the brand’s robust social media community and digital footprint.

Oatey Co., a leading manufacturer in the plumbing industry since 1916, today announced the addition of six new plumbing and building professionals to its Social Media Ambassador Program. Through its Ambassador program, which launched in June 2021,The program is an extension of the brand’s robust, highly engaged social media community, through which Oatey connects with its end users, provides helpful resources, answers questions and builds relationships with tradespeople around the world.

The 2022 class of Oatey Ambassadors includes experienced licensed plumbers Chris Sbrocco, Germaine Nelson, Robert Broccolo, Laura Giudice, Thomas Young, and Darryl Wong, collectively representing a diverse range of plumbing and building expertise from across North America. The new Ambassadors join existing Oatey Ambassadors Danielle Browne, Trey Young, Alex Goin and Omar Harris.

As Ambassadors for Oatey in the field, program participants champion the Oatey family of brands (including Oatey, Dearborn, Hercules, Cherne and more), creating unique multimedia content to be shared across social media and other digital platforms. Each Ambassador receives curated kits of Oatey branded gear, including Ambassador-exclusive swag. They are provided with a range of products to support their day-to-day work, are among the first to know about new product launches and have the chance to try new products firsthand. Ambassadors also have the opportunity to travel to Oatey’s headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, for a two-day Ambassador event.

“Over the past year, Oatey’s Social Media Ambassador Program has been such a rewarding opportunity for us to connect with some of the most talented tradespeople in our network and amplify their unique perspectives and exceptional work,” said Katherine Lehtinen, Senior Vice President, Brand and Digital Marketing at Oatey. “Now, we are honored to welcome our second class of world-class Ambassadors, whose talent and expertise will certainly speak for itself as they champion Oatey’s products in the field and online.”

A new class of Ambassadors will be selected each year. Individuals interested in becoming a future Oatey Ambassador can submit their information on the Oatey website for consideration.

For additional information about Oatey’s Social Media Ambassador Program, visit oatey.com.

The website is designed to best support customer needs, optimizing user-experience and convenience

Cherne Industries (Cherne), the industry-leading manufacturer of pipe plugs and testing equipment and part of the Oatey Co. family of companies, has launched its new website, CherneInd.com — a robust, easy-to-use hub for Cherne product information, customer support and helpful application resources.

The new website houses the brand’s full product catalog, allowing customers to search more than 700 Cherne products, including each product’s specifications, key features, FAQs and safety/instruction manuals. In addition to this technical information, as well as case studies and blogs, the website hosts online training opportunities and detailed, how-to videos.

The Cherne website is mobile-friendly and includes sophisticated navigation with enhanced functionality, making it simple for users to find the specific product they need across both the Waterworks and Plumbing categories. Visitors seeking additional help or information can also communicate in-real-time with a Cherne expert using the “Ask a Tech” functionality, conveniently located at the yellow question mark icon in the bottom right corner of each webpage.

“We’re thrilled to debut the new Cherne website,” says Katherine Lehtinen, Senior Vice President of Brand and Digital Marketing at Oatey. “Not only does it allow us to better serve and connect with the waterworks and plumbing contractors who rely on our products, but it also gives us an opportunity to share our story and reinforce a mission that’s so important to us — developing the best pipe plugs and testing tools to ensure safety and efficiency at jobsites across the globe.”

To explore Cherne’s new website and product catalog, go to CherneInd.com.

ABOUT CHERNE INDUSTRIES

Part of the Oatey Co. family of companies, Cherne Industries (Cherne^®) is the industry-leading manufacturer of test plugs and testing equipment for residential, commercial, industrial and municipal piping systems. Based out of its state-of-the-art headquarters in Shakopee, Minn., Cherne’s products are manufactured with an unwavering commitment to safety and quality.

Available via Oatey Co.’s distribution network throughout North America and through partner distribution on every continent, Cherne products are relied upon by residential and commercial contractors, as well as industrial and municipal engineers, worldwide.

For more information, visit www.CherneInd.com, call 1-800-843-7584 or follow Cherne on LinkedIn.

ABOUT OATEY CO.

Since 1916, Oatey has provided reliable, high-quality products for the residential and commercial plumbing industries, with a commitment to delivering quality, building trust and improving lives. Today, Oatey operates a comprehensive manufacturing and distribution network to supply thousands of products for professional builders, contractors, engineers and do-it-yourself consumers around the world.

Oatey is based in Cleveland, Ohio, and has locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and China. For more information, visit www.oatey.com, call (800) 321-9532 or follow Oatey on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram

Cherne Industries, part of the Oatey Co. family of brands, recently completed a historic move of its headquarters and manufacturing operations — its first in more than 60 years — to a newly constructed, 130,000-square-foot facility located in Shakopee, MN, situated 25 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis.

Opened in March, the manufacturing portion of the new, state-of-the-art headquarters was built to Cherne’s exacting specifications by the OPUS Group, as management sought to more fully integrate all its operations under one roof. Shakopee combines automated robotic manufacturing pneumatic pipe plugs, mechanical pipe plugs and testing equipment with a new research and development laboratory for product testing, extensive customer training facilities, and an in-house machine shop for making all the needed tooling on premises, rather than depending upon outside sources.

In addition, the new building contains ample storage space for raw materials and finished product, so that Cherne no longer relies on outside warehousing for storage and shipping. The resulting, more efficient material flows have already cut lead times and increased operating efficiencies since the move.

“Cherne has been growing at a double-digit pace for the past seven years,” says General Manager and seven-year company veteran David Biron, explaining why the former, 66,000-square-foot facility in nearby Edina was no longer suitable. “We had acquired some robotic equipment and other automation components in recent years, but as the business grew, we simply ran out of space.

“The R&D and testing operations demonstrate Cherne’s newly fortified capabilities as we maintain world class, industry-leading new-product development that provide the safest, most productive value-added solutions for our end users,” Biron continues. Cherne can now test its entire production on premises, instead of relying on outside facilities, as had sometimes been the case in the past.

“The old building did not offer a setting large enough — and therefore safe enough — to test larger plugs and testing equipment, which expand up to 120 inches,” says Biron. “No other plug maker can offer as comprehensive or as safe a testing facility as what we’ve built in Shakopee.”

Robotics = safer, longer-lasting plugs: The most impactful upgrade with the new Shakopee operation is the inclusion of a pair of automated robots for producing Cherne’s industry-first and industry-leading offering of pneumatic plugs. The robotic technology creates a mechanical bond to more securely join the plug’s aluminum end plate to its premium natural-rubber core.

The result is more precise and consistent fabrication, from plug to plug, minimizing field failures sometimes found with the manual, chemical-bonding connection process long used by other manufacturers. Cherne’s robotic-made plugs are a significant industry advancement, offering best-in-class safety, durability, and premium performance.

“No other North American manufacturer is building plugs with one robot, let alone two,” says Biron. “Other producers still assemble them by hand, as they have been for decades. This entire facility demonstrates the enduring strength of the Cherne brand and why a customer can be comfortable buying and installing plugs and related piping products from us.”

Rapid turnaround: Until this past March, every plug sold by Cherne over the past five decades and more had been made in the company’s former Edina facility, erected by founder Lloyd Cherne in 1970. (Oatey Co. bought Cherne in 1990.) So, it may seem surprising that the relocation to Shakopee required only seven days, as Biron reports, with the new plant successfully running 70 percent of the company’s catalog by the end of that first week.

Biron expects to employ 130 personnel, a gain of approximately 20 over Edina. Among the reasons Cherne chose to move to Shakopee was to tap its “wide cross-section of qualified workers” to fill the diversified roster of skilled technical positions needed to operate and maintain Cherne’s large, automated equipment at a high level.

“We drew it all up on a napkin two years ago,” recalls Biron, “and spent another 18 months meticulously planning the move down to the smallest detail. It was unbelievable how our team came together, and it could not have gone any more smoothly — even with all of our large pieces of equipment and despite the pandemic. In a year when everything seemed to go wrong, this move and its aftermath have gone exceptionally right.”

Some key partners that were critical to making the move go as well as it did were Cullinan Rigging and Erecting, OlympiaTech Electric, Voson Plumbing and Allen Mechanical. “Without their attention to detail and customer focus,” says Biron, “this move wouldn’t have been successful.”

To learn more about careers and opportunities available at Cherne Industries, visit oatey.com/careers.