He’s happy to tell you.
“I worked during the summers while attending college at Ohio University. First at Barn Manufacturing and then at NAL during the transition to Mt Orab. My father and NAL’s founder Norm Leibreich started my brothers and I in the business by filling orders, teaching us to run the machines, and how to expand the company’s abilities. This helped me realize you can’t understand the complete process unless you have a good basic knowledge of how things run. Once I began working full time, I was in charge of managing the inventory and scheduling the orders.
“My favorite part of my job is getting to work with my brothers. Once, I was concentrating on nailing down a new and better inventory process. I was getting frustrated that things were not adding up in my ledger book. My brother Mike walked in, listened to my frustrations for a minute, then proceeded to drive a large nail through my ledger book and into my desk. ‘There,’ he said. ‘It’s nailed down, now let’s go get a beer.’
“On a typical day, my role is to oversee the flow of materials and orders through the various manufacturing processes. I match the best fit of materials to fill the orders on hand while minimizing scrap. Schedules are set and they flow through the plant to the different machines which produce our various finished products. We do whatever is necessary to get the product to the customer in a timely manner.
It’s been 45 years since I started at NAL, but I haven’t forgotten how to run the different machines. There are times I will run orders myself to get the project finished. We are a hands-on type of company and family. It is so valuable for my team members to see me sweat, because they know you are just as involved with the finished product as they are.
“I am incredibly proud that we have made this a family business. We are a family that centers our values on teamwork and camaraderie. Each and every one of us has our own specialty that we bring to form NAL. Company. We are all dedicated to fulfilling the company’s mission and operating under our core value of Packaging Heritage.”
–Pat Leibreich, Chief Operations Officer at N.A.L. Company, Inc.