‘If you can form it and weld it, we can build it’

Rich Palzewic

Staff

December 29, 2025

NEENAH – Creative Metal Products (CMP) marked 30 years in business with an open house at its Neenah facility, celebrating both longevity and continued growth.

Headquartered at 2411 Industrial Drive, President and CEO Cameron Yazdani said CMP serves national contracts for Fortune 500 OEMs in metal fabrication and enclosure manufacturing.

“Trying to find the data on how many companies make it 30 years isn’t easy,” he said. “It’s quite a feat that we’ve made it this far. In my [10 years as president/CEO], our sales have more than doubled. We want to double again but in a shorter amount of time. From 2024 to 2025, we grew about 15%.”

That growth, Yazdani said, is because CMP does its best “to follow the megatrends” – long-term changes that affect governments, societies and economies on a global scale.

“Several years ago, CMP got deep into electrification, and that has boded us well for UL-certified enclosures,” he said. “We make a lot of those enclosures, and now, with the data center boom and artificial intelligence, they all have enclosures – whether it’s for power, for chilling or for backup power.”

As an example, Yazdani said CMP recently completed a large project in Georgia for Quality Technology Services (QTS) – a provider of data center solutions.

“All you see is 250 large, white enclosures, each the size of a refrigerator,” he said. “QTS is also coming to Wisconsin now.”

Knowing that the data-center boom and AI are just taking off, Yazdani said CMP is set up well for the future.

“Even though electrification and AI are great for our company, we are very diversified at CMP – whether it’s construction, defense, power, etc.,” he said. “Our largest customer only makes up 22% of our business. We want to keep it that way. It’s not going to be the only thing we chase to reach our dreams and goals. It’s not a matter of if those different sectors will have a downturn – it’s when they have a downturn.”

After moving into its current Neenah location in 2011, CMP has continued to grow year over year, but Yazdani said the company does not yet see a need to expand its physical footprint.

“There is room in here yet,” he said. “With our other facility in Oshkosh, I think that space is also underutilized a bit. There’s some good space left.”

Yazdani said CMP’s fundamental success is based on three characteristics of its team.

“First, it’s our creativity, which supports our name,” he said. “Secondly, our grit, and lastly, our strategic thinking. We’re constantly thinking about strategy and about those megatrends in the marketplace, and how that translates into opportunities for us.”

From start to finish

Cale Simes, sales manager at CMP, said the company first got its start in Kimberly before moving to Neenah.

Receiving slabs of sheet metal 60 inches wide by 120 inches long, he said the material will go through a series of processes from start to finish to create an end product.

“It will first go through laser cutting and turret punching, which creates holes and shapes in sheet metal efficiently and accurately,” he said. “Then it moves into forming, automation, many different forms of welding, powder-coat painting and assembly.”

Powder-coat painting, Simes said, is done at CMP’s Oshkosh facility.

“That takes place at Two Fabrication & Color,” Simes said. “We acquired Two Fab in mid-2024, and they have a powder-coat paint line. I’d say about 80% of our overall product gets powder-coat painted, which is for corrosion resistance. All of our stuff is metal, so it will rust in the outdoors if not protected.”

Going a step further, Simes said CMP also rain-tests its products.

“It has to pass certain requirements to meet the UL certification,” he said. “We might put a product into the rain tester and turn the water on for 30 minutes, making sure it’s water-tight.”

Simes said 75-85 direct laborers working in three shifts make it all happen at CMP.

“In our welding department, we have three robotic welders and eight or nine different manual weld booths,” he said. “We also just recently introduced laser welding.”

Simes said laser welding – also known as laser beam welding – is a technique in manufacturing where two or more pieces of material (usually metal) are joined together through the use of a laser beam.

The heat created by the laser, he said, melts the material on both sides of the joint, and as the molten material mixes and resolidifies, it fuses the parts.

The weld is formed, Simes said, as the intense laser light rapidly heats the material – typically calculated in milliseconds.

“It’s a newer technique and not as well known,” he said.

Because CMP’s products require a high level of precision, Yazdani said they are typically produced in smaller, specialized runs rather than mass-produced.

“We run the gamut on part runs, but I would say, on average, a typical run for a manufactured project might be anywhere from 500-1,000 per year,” he said. “We’d break that down into smaller, monthly runs. Most of what we do is ongoing business, as long as that demand is there.”

30 years = $30,000 donation

Yazdani said to commemorate CMP’s 30th anniversary, the company made a $30,000 donation to the Tanner Wolding Memorial Fund, inspired by the milestone year and his recent 30th class reunion.

The donation, he said, is a direct result of CMP’s 2025 results, can-do attitude, teamwork and customer-centric mindset.

“Because of our employees’ efforts and continued growth trajectory, Creative Metal Products is proud and grateful to donate $30,000 to the fund, which emphasizes mental health and awareness, in memory of Jeff Wolding’s son, Tanner,” he said. “I’m hoping $30,000 will go quite far in mental health and awareness.”

Wolding, Yazdani said, is the founder and former CEO of CMP.

“This fund was created to emphasize the importance of focusing on mental health and to remind those around us they are loved and needed,” he said.

Yazdani said CMP is big into giving back to the community.

“Whether that’s in mental health, veteran affairs or different drives we do,” he said. “Those are the three areas we focus on.”

For more information on Creative Metal Products, visit creativemp.com.