DE PERE (NBC 26) — William "Red" Lewis started PDQ Manufacturing in the mid-1980s. The touchless car wash industry icon guided the growth of company until his death in 2021, moving its manufacturing facility and headquarters from Packerland Drive to Scheuring Road in De Pere. Chicago-based Dover Corporation acquired the company in 1998, but PDQ remains a leader in the industry, shipping worldwide from its northeast Wisconsin home.
- Manufacturing Month is a partnership between NBC 26 and the Greater Green Bay Chamber
- PDQ Manufacturing does not have the same ownership as the PDQ Car Wash locations around town — general manager David Dougherty says, "We're very different operations and are different companies, but we both have the same roots"
- Video shows the PDQ shop floor, as well as the finished car wash systems it creates
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
We're continuing to celebrate manufacturing month here at NBC 26, highlighting companies around northeast Wisconsin. We're at PDQ Manufacturing in De Pere, showing you the magic that happens here in this shop.
When you pull into a touchless car wash around town, that technology — like the LaserWash system at this gas station — may have local roots.
"An in-bay automatic is a type of car wash where the car pulls into a bay or a room and the machine goes around you," general manager David Dougherty said. "Those are typically sold at gas stations around town."
Dougherty says PDQ Manufacturing — short for performance, dependability, and quality — has been around in the Green Bay area since the 1980s.
"The people here in northeastern Wisconsin make it special," Dougherty said. "We, like I said earlier, we have employees that have been with us 30 years. We love it here in Wisconsin."
In partnership with the Greater Green Bay Chamber, we checked out the sparkling De Pere facilities for our Manufacturing Month series.
"When you think of manufacturing, you think of the nitty-gritty, the dirty work," human resources manager Lauren Kohut said. :But really, it's really not. As you look around here, it's a clean environment.When you think of manufacturing, it's something consumers are going to be using on a day-to-day basis, which is really important."
Here in the shop, around 90 employees, ranging from recent graduates to 30-year professionals, develop the car wash systems until they're ready for installation.
Plant manager Drew Martin says PDQ tests the finished product in-house.
"This is the part that the arch affixes to," Martin tells us, "that goes back and forth in front of the car."
And though the company has different ownership now, Dougherty says it's grown from Green Bay into a worldwide brand.
"We founded the company on based upon the LaserWash 4000 [and] the history behind that, and that has become a workhorse in industry," Dougherty said. "We have added features and benefits and solutions for our customers over the years, and maintained that world leader position in the in-bay automatic.
So next time you're getting your car washed, maybe take a closer look at the machinery — it could've been made right here in northeast Wisconsin.
