It all started with lawn sprinklers. In 1964, Bernard and Cora Mae Flier started a part-time business, building sprinkler systems out of a chicken coop near their home. Fifty years later, Flier’s is a well-respected full service lawn irrigation company, with residential and commercial clients throughout West Michigan. But now, Flier’s is also one of the most successful, and respected, suppliers of advanced water treatment systems in North America.
How does a company go from assembling do-it-yourself sprinkler parts to engineering and installing highly sophisticated water filtration systems? Jim Flier, President of Flier’s Quality Water, credits his companies’ steady growth each year to his father’s three key principles: dedication, hard work, and most of all, integrity.
“I’m so fortunate to have a father who showed me the right way to build a business. Bern treated everyone – coworkers, customers, suppliers, and the people he encountered in the community – with fairness and respect. He never asked anyone to do a job he wouldn’t do himself. He truly believed the company’s employees and customers were our greatest asset, and he did everything he could to continuously earn their trust and loyalty. The examples he set made this business grow. And they inspire us to this day.”
While the sprinkler business still thrives – the National Irrigation Association named it one of the top 100 sprinkler companies – its growth has been surpassed by Flier’s Quality Water. After installing its first water treatment system in 1992, the company experienced double-digit sales increases, as Flier’s applied Bern’s principles to a new business sector. “We gained a lot of new business simply by keeping the promises we made,” Jim Flier recalls.
The company’s expansion saw them producing everything from rugged water systems for automotive and agriculture, to ultrapure sanitary food and beverage systems. Flier’s Quality Water has become particularly competitive in the extremely demanding healthcare field, providing custom engineered water purification systems for pharmaceutical production, laboratories, hospitals, universities, and medical processes like hemodialysis. Flier’s also operates their own FDA regulated cGMP resin regeneration plant, which is one of the largest in Michigan, and is 510k certified.
Flier’s has gone from that chicken coop to a 25,000 square-foot facility in Byron Center. The company employs over 60 people, and has satisfied clients all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico. But the company is still guided by the principles Bern Flier established in 1964. It’s still family owned, going on three generations, and growing strong.
My father's goal was to establish lifetime relationships with every customer, supplier, and employee -- by exceeding their highest expectations.
