JWF Industries continues to diversify and remains dedicated to its legacy of faith, family, and country
JWF Industries is renowned for its expertise in fabricating, machining, coating, and assembly, as well as project management, and has been providing these services to OEMs and defense contractors for over 37 years. Starting in William Polacek’s father’s two-car garage, the company has grown to annual operating sales of over $120 million, with more than 1.3 million square feet of manufacturing space and employing over 400 professionals.
The company was started in 1957 by John Polacek Sr. in a two-car garage located next to the family residence. This was a part-time business to supplement the family’s income. Bill Polacek, President and CEO, purchased his father’s part-time business in 1987 and started Johnstown Welding & Fabrication. As the company grew, its name changed to JWF Industries (JWF) to reflect the diversification of capabilities.
“JWF designs, manufactures, and integrates metal centric products; sustaining continual growth with the right people, processes, markets, and customers,” begins Will Polacek, Executive VP. “We build everything from vehicles for the military to equipment for the construction industry and hold patented products for the gas and oil industry. Additionally, JWF Industries manufactures products for the airport and rail industries.”
“We have three facilities in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and one in Windber, Pennsylvania, as well as locations in Edenton, North Carolina and Baltimore, Maryland,” John Polacek, COO, adds. “The group in Baltimore operates as Atlantic Industrial Mechanical & Electrical (AIME) and is the region’s premier industrial pipeline, mechanical, environmental and structural steel contractor.”
JWF Industries designs, manufactures, and integrates metal centric products for the defense, commercial, energy, and transportation sectors. This includes a ground-up assembly line for military vehicle builds and armor package installs. The company provides turn-key solutions that include laser-cutting, forming, welding, and chemical agent resistant coating (CARC) painting of armor plate, as well as fabrication of composite armor panels. JWF has over 130 certified welders and specializes in complex, large weldments that involve close tolerances and its highly skilled machinists provide precision-machined components from simple to complex five-axis parts.
“We have one of the largest powder coating paint lines east of the Mississippi River in terms of part size, weight, and quantity of parts per day,” says John. “We have a vehicle assembly line in our main facility where we produce approximately one military vehicle per day. We have been producing all types of armor products for 18 years and approximately three years ago decided to introduce complete builds for military vehicles.”
Valued employees
“We’re in the process of opening a new 100,000 square-foot facility which will be in an adjacent Johnstown community and will focus on the manufacture and assembly of rail cars for the transportation sector,” adds Will.
“We have implemented robotic welding and are also starting to utilize the potential use of AI technology,” John shares. “Our plan is to become more automated and to try to incorporate an element of AI throughout the entire company. Toward that end, we have already incorporated an element of AI integration into our estimating, MRP, and manufacturing processes which are already showing very positive returns on the investment. AI will help to increase our competitive advantage throughout all our facilities and markets. We already have robotics in our existing facilities and carry out a lot of robotic welding. An affiliate of Carnegie Mellon University has recently joined our board and she’s helping us to better understand AI applications and how we could bring them into our manufacturing operations.
“In line with our company mission, we strive to find what our customer needs, then grow and change to meet those needs. We encourage our company partners to share their strategies for the years ahead, enabling us to proactively plan to meet those needs. We work to increase the viability and scalability of potential products by collaborating with our customers and are forward thinking in terms of our ingenuity and approach to engineering. We want to understand where our customers are going and grow to meet their needs. Our rapid prototype team works to validate new products before they are introduced to the manufacturing floor that allows us to create a job-ready process into our manufacturing space,” John explains.
For JWF, it’s not about business, it’s about people. The company values and develops its employees’ diverse talents, initiative, and leadership. “We’re very big on promoting from within,” Will elaborates. “For example, every single person on our executive team started out somewhere on the shop floor, either as a welder or machinist, and has risen through the ranks. As such, we are exceptionally proud of our legacy experience and expertise. Our employees’ safety is of paramount importance to us and we work every day to promote the health and well-being of each and every employee,” Bill commented. “If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers.”
“We are also uncompromising in terms of our quality, service, and performance. We offer incentives for our employees and have paid a profit-sharing bonus to every employee for the past 27 quarters. Additionally, we have a loyalty bonus program. This bonus is paid at the end of each calendar year to all qualified employees. Our culture is based upon a process-based environment that is based on high quality, on-time products delivered to all of our customers.”
Paying it forward 
JWF has received many awards from the community and customers. In 2023-2024 alone, JWF received the following: PA Business Central’s Top 100 People and Top 100 Organizations, Best Places to Work in PA, Pittsburgh Smart Business “Smart 50” Honoree, JWF Defense Systems’ BAE Systems’ Combat Mission Systems Partner2Win “AMPV Supplier of the Year” Award and “Silver Supplier, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control” “Exceptional Small Business Performance” Award, and VCI’s Regional Making A Difference award.
“We embarked on a mission to be Employer of Choice, and that mission culminated with winning Best Places to Work in PA two years in a row. We are most proud of this award because it is our employees voting and is a result of our Enterprise Model fulfilling our strategy to be a Process-Based organization.”
JWF is proud to support local communities and recognizes the vital role the company plays in supporting its neighbors in need, contributing to local activities and organizations, and helping communities to thrive. “When John and I were children,” Bill shares, “our father had an accident that put him out of work for many months and he virtually had no income to support his wife and nine children. This happened at Christmas time, and I remember someone in the community leaving toys and food on our porch. This really stuck with me, and I knew that at some point I would give back to the community to pay it forward.”
What started with the family helping to serve lunch on Christmas Day at a local community center gained momentum and led to Bill being a founding member and chairman of Johnstown’s “Vision Together 2025” initiative, which has become a highly structured and efficient charitable operation, gaining investment and winning grants for the good of the community. Inspired by giving back, the company’s employees created JWF Cares, an employee-led group to help fellow employees in need and to contribute to community organizations and charitable groups. Employees support the group through payroll deduction and by participating in fundraising activities throughout the year. JWF Cares was created in response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina which damaged Louisiana and the Gulf Coast in 2005. Employees organized a food and supplies drive to aid victims, with JWF supplying trucks to deliver the items.
Additionally, members of the Polacek family partnered with the Park Avenue United Methodist Church to distribute food to families in need during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Over 200 families were provided with fresh produce and other food items.
“I think the best days are those we fill with doing something to help others,” Bill continues. “We’ve created an ecosystem within the community that centers on giving back and doing good. My father’s legacy is about faith, family, and helping others, and we’ve continued to operate, both professionally and personally, from that perspective, and have interwoven those values into our organization.”
Succession plans
Looking to the future, JWF is about to achieve NAVSEA certifications. The compact arrangement of machinery and systems onboard ships, the sophistication of systems installed in naval ships, and the Navy’s absolute requirement for reliable operation, create a unique repair environment that demands expertise and capability. “Certification will create vast opportunities for us and for the sustainability and longevity of JWF for future generations,” Bill continues.
With plans to increase employment and enhance investment in equipment, JWF’s succession plan is already in place, which won it the Pittsburgh Business “Smart 50” Award in 2023 for sustainability. “After some time away exploring other avenues,” Will shares, “I came back to JWF and seven years later, I couldn’t be more convinced that this is where I want to be. Certainly, being next in line to be named President is a big responsibility, but it means a lot to have the confidence of my father, and of all employees, because he certainly didn’t make that decision in isolation, and it is a title that has to be earned.”
Bill’s solution for running a progressive and high-quality organization is simple. “Our strategy is not just to grow, but to do so with the right people, right processes, in the right markets, with the right customers. It is this approach that has really changed the culture of our organization for now and for the future.”