Constantin Haag Built Hammer Haag Steel From Six People to a $37.5 Million Expansion

Constantin Haag was 15 when he started managing parts of his father’s business. By 2011, after years of watching outside fabrication suppliers deliver work that didn’t meet his standards, he launched Hammer Haag Steel in Florida with five other employees and about 15,000 square feet of shop space.

Today, the company takes on some of the most complex steel fabrication and CNC machining projects in the industry, with a self-funded $37.5 million expansion underway. We sat down with Constantin to talk about what it took to get from that small shop to a facility preparing to more than double its capacity.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

I came to Florida from Germany when I was 6 years old, and I grew up around the family business. By the time I was 15, I was helping manage my father’s company. That put responsibility in front of me early. I was around employees, customers, fabrication, and the daily decisions that come with running a business long before I started Hammer Haag Steel.

I founded Hammer Haag Steel in 2011 with six people, including me, in about 15,000 square feet. We had limited equipment, a few welding machines and a small crew. Since then, I have spent more than a decade building the people, equipment, facilities and capabilities around that original operation. Today, we are a family-owned steel fabrication and CNC machining company in Florida taking on large, heavy and complex manufacturing work.

I have always stayed close to the work. My background includes design, engineering, field installation, manufacturing and mechanical assembly. I enjoy seeing something go from a drawing to pieces of steel on the floor and eventually leave as a finished machine or structure that our team built together.

What kind of work does Hammer Haag do? 

We build custom steel components and assemblies for industrial customers. A lot of our work starts with a drawing and leaves our facility as a finished component, machine or structure that has been fabricated, machined, inspected, assembled and prepared for delivery.

The work is usually custom, and that is a big part of what I enjoy about it. We might be building components for a ship loader or a crane, then working on something for an amusement ride. The industries can be very different, but the common thread is that somebody brings us something difficult to build, and we build it.

Over the years, we have developed more of those capabilities under one roof so we can carry a project through more of the process ourselves. That gives our people a better understanding of the finished product and allows us to stay closely involved from the first stages of fabrication through assembly and delivery.

What was your inspiration for starting the business?

Before Hammer Haag, I was working around fabrication that we were purchasing from outside suppliers. We would bring pieces in and see that the quality was not where I expected it to be. This happened with more than one supplier.

I wanted more control over what was being delivered to the customer. I wanted each stage of fabrication handled at the level I expected, so we began bringing more of that work in-house. That experience eventually led to starting Hammer Haag Steel.

My family background gave me an early understanding of the responsibility involved. Since working at my father’s company so young, I knew that owning a business meant being responsible for customers, employees and the work carrying your name.

What did Hammer Haag look like when you first started it? 

Hammer Haag Steel started in March 2011 with six people in approximately 15,000 square feet. I was one of those six.

We did not have the equipment or resources we have today. We had a small number of workers, welding machines and limited material, so everybody contributed wherever the company needed them. I stayed directly involved to establish our standard of care, workmanship, efficiency and safety.

Our early work included fabrication for the power and amusement industry. That gave us a starting point and helped establish the shop, giving us the time and framework to develop as a company in this industry.

What decisions helped you grow and diversify the business?

One of the earliest lessons came from others in the industry. The work was too sporadic to support the operation we wanted to build, so we started looking for other industries that needed the same large custom fabrication capability.

That was the beginning. We learned that our capability could serve far more than one application, and over time we diversified into industries including bulk material handling, cranes, amusement rides, industrial equipment and other large fabricated structures.

We also kept investing in capability. As customers entrusted us with larger and more complicated work, we added equipment, machining, inspection, assembly, finishing and logistics. We have also tried to keep approximately 25% of our capacity available for emergency work. Some customers come to us with projects that need to turn around in days instead of weeks, and that flexibility gives us the ability to respond.

Growth has come from being willing to reinvest in the company before every piece of capacity is already spoken for.

How did the challenges change as Hammer Haag grew? 

The challenge has changed as the company has grown.

When we had six people at the start, communication happened naturally because everybody could see what everybody else was doing.

As the operation becomes larger, there are more people, more shifts, more equipment and thousands of individual parts moving through production. I had to learn how to build an organization where information did not depend on me or a handful of experienced people knowing everything that was happening. That required better project controls, clearer responsibilities and stronger processes while keeping the hands-on culture we started with.

That transition from a small shop into a much larger manufacturing operation has probably required more adjustment from me than any individual fabrication problem.

How have you maintained pride in the work as the company has grown? 

Culture. It starts with culture.

The pride our people take in the work has had a tremendous influence on the company. There are pictures throughout our office of the people we work with and the projects we have completed together. Some of our craftsmen have spent decades welding, fitting and fabricating. I have heard people with 35 years of experience say they still learn from the other people here. That says a lot about the environment we have built.

We also hold the finished product to a simple standard. When something reaches the end of our process, it still has to pass the final inspection. If it does not pass, it does not leave until it does.

Customers remember what you deliver, and our people understand that the work leaving the facility represents all of us.

What kind of culture have you tried to build at Hammer Haag? 

I look at Hammer Haag as a family.

I have always believed the people who work with me should be able to contribute to their families, to the community and on the job. Everybody has something they can contribute. That way of thinking has been part of how I have approached the company for years.

Our team includes engineering, project management, fabrication, welding, machining, quality control, dimensional verification, assembly, finishing, material handling and logistics. Many people are also cross-trained because we operate across multiple shifts and need people who understand how their work connects with the next stage of a project.

Safety is personal to me as well. The people on the floor have families waiting for them at home. I do not see a separation between management and the people doing the work when it comes to taking care of the team.

What kinds of projects is Hammer Haag built to take on?

We specialize in projects that are large, heavy and complicated, especially when fabrication has to interface with precision machining and tight tolerances.

One project involved a 127-foot girder where we held the dimensions to 1/16 of an inch. On another program, we produced nearly 300 machines and handled the work from engineering through paint, assembly and logistics. We have also fabricated large machines while holding one-millimeter tolerances.

The size of the work also changes how you have to operate. Approximately 85% of the loads leaving our facility are oversized in height, width, weight or some combination of the three. We have experience moving large equipment by truck, water and internationally, so logistics becomes part of how we plan the project from the beginning.

We have built the company around being a one-stop shop, with everything under one roof.

What have you learned about transferring experience as the company grows?

I have learned that experience has to be shared through the organization.

We used to have an older plate rolling machine that depended heavily on an operator with decades of experience. If that person was out, the job could sit until he came back. His knowledge was extremely valuable, although the company had become dependent on one person being available.

When we invested in CNC-controlled rolling equipment, we were able to train additional operators to produce complex shapes while still benefiting from the knowledge of our experienced people. We also eliminated additional steps, measurements and re-rolls in the process.

That experience changed how I think about growth. I want great people with deep knowledge, and I also want that knowledge spread throughout the team so one person’s absence does not stop the work.

What are your future plans for the business?

We are continuing to expand our manufacturing capacity locally.

Our $37.5 million self-funded Site 2 expansion includes five bays approximately 500 feet long and 80 feet wide, additional heavy-lifting capability and expanded logistics infrastructure. We expect the expansion to add approximately 100 employees to start and increase our throughput by more than 2.5 times.

We are making that investment because the projects coming to us continue to become larger and more complex. I want Hammer Haag to have the space, equipment, people and capacity to accept those projects and execute them properly.

When I think about where we started, the scale has changed considerably. But I still enjoy the same basic part of the business: somebody brings us something difficult to build, and our team makes it happen.