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April 14, 2025
SCHOFIELD – Winning awards, President and CEO Mark Matthiae said, is nothing new to Crystal Finishing Systems, Inc. (CFS).
Since its formation in 1993, Matthiae said the company has won dozens of awards, including:
- Small Business of the Year
- SBA Top 100 in the USA for Job Creation
- USDA Top 50 in the USA for Job Creation
- Deloitte top 75 Privately-owned Businesses in Wisconsin
- Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in the USA
- Mosinee Chamber Large Business of the Year.
However, as a proud Wisconsin manufacturer, Matthiae said the company’s most recent recognition – being named a finalist in the Mega Category (500-plus employees) in the 36th annual Manufacturer of the Year (MOTY) awards, sponsored in part by the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) – takes the cake.
The Crystal Finishing philosophy
Matthiae said CFS offers a comprehensive suite of high-quality solutions designed to meet the needs of clients in a variety of business sectors – including automotive, architecture, recreational and industrial manufacturing.
The company’s philosophy, he said, is based on a “commitment to providing the highest quality products and services, speed to market and on-time deliveries, and at a fair price,” all with a customer-centric approach.
Matthiae said CFS customers and team members alike are what drive this family owned business.
“Our team members make us special,” he said. “We take a team approach to all aspects of our business, ensuring that all departments are represented in decision-making,” he said. “We have dedicated ourselves professionally to team member engagement and training. Our goal is to provide our team members with an incredible opportunity to be successful, thus creating an environment where our customers can be successful.”
When CFS was first started, Matthiae said he never expected it to grow into the operation it is today.
He said his main goal was simply to “survive.”
“I never had a goal in mind of growing,” he said. “We just always listened to our customers and we grew with them over the years.”
Matthiae said flexibility and having great employees are two very important aspects of business ownership – which has been a challenge for many employers in today’s post-COVID-19-pandemic marketplace.
“We’re trying to meet that challenge,” he said. “Better training and treating employees like family helps keep the same people, while addressing turnover issues wherever possible. Since COVID, there’s been more turnover and attitudes have changed with a lot of people. There’s either too much overtime, or not enough overtime – you can’t make everybody happy, even though we try.”
An almost accidental start
Before starting Crystal Finishing Systems, Matthiae said he owned an auto body shop in Marathon – an operation he started at age 17.
After a fire wiped out the Marathon Auto Body Shop, he said the business was relocated to the Wausau area.
Through a series of partnerships, Matthiae said the business evolved into Precision Body and Frame, which is still in business today.
He said he sold a majority of his part of the Precision partnership in 2002.
Matthiae said when he and his wife, Laurie, founded CFS in 1993, the operation started in a 3,500-square-foot facility with three employees and one small spray line.
He said the company’s first industrial customer was the Case Corp. in Schofield – and quickly developed many close relationships with people there, especially in the painting division.
However, when Case closed its operations in Wisconsin and moved to North Dakota, Matthiae said he wasn’t sure what would become of CFS.
Many of the Case employees who didn’t move with the company to North Dakota all got jobs with other companies in and around the Wausau area, and when they ran into painting issues, Matthiae said they’d call him.
He said it was those humble roots they started with that remain at the foundation of the company today.
Since that first job in 1993, Matthiae said CFS has grown to 960 employees and expanded its business space to 1.8 million square feet of space at four different locations.
Besides its home base in Schofield, he said the company has additional locations in Mosinee, River Falls and Senatobia, Mississippi.
Matthiae said the company’s services include liquid painting, powder coating, anodizing, aluminum extrusion, metal fabrication, architectural and industrial finishes, plastic and fiberglass painting and more.
CFS, he said, also provides trucking and warehouse services.
Workplace safety = healthy team members
Safety, Matthiae said, is the No. 1 focus at CFS.
The company, he said, has safety programs and monthly toolbox talks led by supervisors and multiple safety teams.
In addition, Matthiae said CFS has dedicated safety professionals – including a risk prevention specialist who focuses on ensuring team members are not only working safely, but taking care of themselves once injured.
This dedicated resource, he said, has proven to be a valuable asset to the safety team.
“The biggest thing we’re committed to is growing the health of our team members,” he said. “We provide (primary) health care to all of our team members at no cost. They still have to carry insurance outside of that, but their basics are covered. We have built fitness centers at our company sites. We’re just completing one now in Schofield. It is a state-of-the-art fitness center.”
In 2022, Matthiae said the Crystal Training Institute (CTI) opened in Mosinee with a mission of delivering “the most scientifically proven health and wellness platform enabling employees to reach their individual potential while building a culture that is positive, educational and encouraging.”
The 88,000-square-foot CTI facility, he said, has close to 2,000 members from 26 different zip codes, covering about a 100-mile radius – offering almost anything you can imagine for sports, fitness, physical therapy and fun.
“Outside companies sponsor their employees to go there, while private people, including both individuals and families, are also members,” he said. “We offer basketball, softball, baseball, soccer, football, lacrosse, dance and fitness, a youth football camp, volleyball, hockey, speed training – just about every sport.”
Matthiae said athletes can train at the CTI facility year-round.
“We also do physical therapy there for people who are injured, whether it’s workers’ comp, a sports injury or a personal injury – like a slip and fall,” he said. “It’s all self-pay – it’s not covered by insurance. We hold tournaments there. We hold different fundraisers there. It’s a neat place.”
Besides the training areas, Matthiae said CTI offers many different amenities, including a private fitness area, physical therapy, locker rooms, private showers and changing rooms, towel service, a conference room and large team meeting room, concession and beverage areas and a large general upstairs seating area with a view of the facility.
Since CTI’s inception, Matthiae said the company has received a great payback on the health of its own team members.
“A lot of people who had physical conditions that were generated outside of work have seen improvement,” he said. “We’ve gotten them to move better, stretch better and be healthier. I think every day, we hear good stories of things that both CTI and Link Healthcare – which is part of the Link Healthcare Network – have done. We have the on-site health clinics, plus CTI, available for our team members and their families.”
Equally committed to philanthropy
Whatever the company does – whether it’s at CFS or CTI, Matthiae said they try to give back to the community – which has included supporting local 5K runs and providing assistance to several local schools and area tech centers, including Northcentral Technical College.
In all, Matthiae said CFS has supported more than 75 different charities and events, with United Way being one of the larger ones.
The future continues to look bright
Matthiae said CFS has made significant investments in recent years to keep abreast of technological advances.
“In the last three years, we’ve put in almost $60 million for new equipment and expansions,” he said. “Almost every month, we have new equipment coming in for fabrication or upgrading existing equipment, automation and so forth. Automation is our friend, not our enemy, because it helps us stay competitive.”
Matthiae said one of CFS’s secrets to success is remaining diversified.
“We try not to have any one market be more than 10% of our business,” he said. “So, we try to vary our end-customers by market type. That also helps us keep steady employment levels. We also have a good mix of summer and winter customers.”
The company’s current growth plans, Matthiae said, include growing elsewhere in the country.
“Our Mississippi plant is going to help us to do that,” he said. “It’s given us a good segue into the southeast market, including Texas and Florida.”
Though he has no retirement plans on the horizon, Matthiae said Laurie has been semi-retired for about 15 years.
“She’s still the vice president, secretary and treasurer, and is involved in the business strategy end of things,” he said. “Laurie is my true partner and owns half the company… Because we are a profit-sharing company, we like to have team members who also feel like owners. We owe our team everything.”
