BROOKFIELD, Ohio – Uniserv LLC has multiple lines running and plenty of work at its manufacturing plant, which specializes in custom slit-to-width processing of various customer-owned metals.
Many guardrails used across Ohio come through the plant, along with metal products for the oil and gas, automotive and aerospace industries. Large coils of metal come to Uniserv to be precision split and returned or moved on to the next step in the manufacturing process.
Jeremy Kerola, vice president of Uniserv, gave a tour of the plant Friday as part of the Free Enterprise Express Opportunity Tour, arranged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in partnership with state and local chambers to promote business and economic development.
Kerola said an ISO 9001 designation allows the plant to work with automotive- and aerospace-grade materials, assuring customers that the company has the proven quality to manufacture the parts they need.
“We have an order volume that is driven by so many different aspects of things,” Kerola said. “The push to get everything back reshored has definitely helped, but there’s also a lot of major industrial projects happening in the region.”
Finding customers is not a problem for Uniserv, but finding employees can be. Kerola said Uniserv partners with Brookfield and Hubbard high schools to help students understand the blue-collar opportunities in their areas.
“It is a manufacturing environment, a blue-collar work ethic, and truly there is a lot of that around here,” said Kerola, who also sits on the Youngstown State University Industrial Engineering Board. “We support [education], and I work with them. I’ve had a couple maintenance guys that wanted to further their education, and we try to support them any way we can in doing that.”
Kerola, a Hubbard alumnus, said he partners with the career-based intervention programs at both high schools and meets with students and teachers at least once every quarter to let them know what opportunities exist. He also said the programs emphasize the basic math, work ethic and soft skills students need to become successful in manufacturing.
“We try to convey this isn’t for everybody, but we try to convey the right ideas that they have to take into the professional environment,” Kerola said, adding that convincing workers and businesses to stay local or regional is good for the area.
“We try to source as much of our materials locally as possible,” Kerola said. “We go the Lake to River region, then Ohio, then U.S. nationally, and we try to just keep everything domestic, as close to home as possible. Same with our talent pool.”
During Friday’s tour, U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, R-14th, said efforts by manufacturers to train young workers for high-paying jobs will help keep local industries going in the future.
“It’s important that we continue to give them tax incentives that they need so they can buy the equipment that they need and be able to put their profits back into growing and expanding the community and to the education of our youth,” Joyce said. “These are good jobs that exist, that give you a way forward, and you could come here, learn a skill, make a good wage and still be able to go to college. And at the end of five years, end up with a degree, a skill and no debt.”
Kevin Courtois, vice president of the Great Lakes region of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, touted that CNBC ranked Ohio as the top state for business. He also highlighted that 2,154 individuals filed applications to form new businesses in Trumbull County in 2025, a new record for the county.
“That’s 2,154 people who decided to take a risk,” Courtois said. “They’re pouring their blood, sweat and tears into creating an opportunity for this community, and they need to know that their elected officials have their back. … They’re lucky here in the 14th District of Ohio, because they have just that in their congressman, Dave Joyce.”
Joyce, who is on the ballot this November, received an endorsement from the U.S. Chamber during the event.
Pictured at top: Kevin Courtois, vice president of the Great Lakes region of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce get a tour from Jeremy J. Kerola, vice president of Uniserv.