A look inside Shelby’s Cooper Enterprises

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of a series, Manufacturing Matters, that focuses on products made in Richland County.

SHELBY – For 52 years, Cooper Enterprises (89 Curtis Drive) has been a significant part of Shelby, growing and changing over time to become the business it is today.

In its nearly 200,000 square-foot space with about 100 employees, the contract manufacturer makes wood and laminated products used by retailers in bowling alleys, schools, hospitals and other places around the world.

Only two years ago when celebrating its 50^th anniversary, Cooper Enterprises was operating out of 120,000 square-feet with about 75 employees. When Monty and Edward Friebel, the sons of one of the two founders, began working at Cooper Enterprises, it had nine employees working in a 12,000 square-foot space.

Edward Friebel, the vice president of Cooper Enterprises, joined the company in 1989. Current president Monty Friebel joined in 1991. They took joint ownership of the business when their father, Gerald Friebel died.

“When we started working together, we had one customer that occupied over 80 percent of our business, and we had a second customer that occupied 15 percent of our business,” said Monty Friebel “One thing that really concerned Ed and I was that we were so heavily concentrated with just two customers, that we needed to work on diversification.

“We started looking for other market opportunities where we could use the same resources, yet serve different markets.” 

Director of business development Mike Murray – who’s been with Cooper Enterprises for about 20 years – said this evolution helped the business to grow tremendously. He believes it will also help with long-range plans of continued expansion.

“When one market is down, another business is up,” Murray said. “Over the years, we’ve done business with just about every major retailer out there – Target, Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, JC Penney.”

Cooper Enterprises makes fixtures and displays that are used by major retailers and restaurants, as well as cabinets used in schools, hospitals, offices and commercial buildings.

Furthermore, the Shelby business manufactures table tops used by AMF Bowling in bowling houses, CrossFit rings used by Rogue Fitness, the lids for The Longaberger Company’s baskets and wooden products for a large billiard company.

Work done by Cooper Enterprises can also be seen on the ceiling of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in the Cavaliers Team Shop and at the Alston & Bird Law Firm in Washington D.C.

As children, the Friebel brothers shared a room. Later, as teenagers, they bought their first car together. As adults, they’ve owned and operated Cooper Enterprises in Shelby for approximately two decades and worked together for an even longer period.

“Edward and I hold each other to such high standards, and we’re always challenging one another,” Monty Friebel said. “We can have arguments and disagree, but we come in the next day, and we let it go.”

He jokes that they must be doing something right since they “haven’t killed each other.” 

Monty and Edward run the business that was started in 1965 by Dan Cooper, who retired and sold his portion of the company in 1989.

Cooper Enterprises was formerly the wood products division of Friebel and Hartman Construction, which was owned by Walter Friebel Sr. (Gerald’s father) and Ray Hartman. The pair founded their business in 1936.

“Grandfather retired in ’65, and as part of his retirement, he took the wood products division from Friebel and Hartman and put my Uncle Dan Cooper and father Gerald together,” Monty explained.

They called it Cooper Enterprises so it wouldn’t be confused with Friebel and Hartman.

The key to staying in business for such a long time, Monty Friebel says, is customer service.

“A lot of times how you’re measured by customers is through your service. Do you do what you say you’re going to do? Do you deliver on time? And when there’s a mistake, how do you respond?” he explained.

Monty Friebel mentioned that he knows of one customer that’s been with Cooper Enterprises since 1965 and at least one more that’s been working with the business since he joined in the 1990s.

“We still get business by referral, word-of-mouth,” he said.

Monty Friebel also says it’s important to treat employees like family.

“We work very hard to keep our good people,” he said. “If you think about it, you can’t do business without good people. You might have great machinery, a great facility, great technology, but if you don’t have a great team of people, you can’t go anywhere.”

In mid-October, Monty Friebel said that the business wasn’t actively hiring. However, if anyone would like to apply or learn more about Cooper Enterprises, they can visit cooperenterprises.com.