Townsend Leather is a Top Work Place & Best Place to Work!
Townsend Leather is incredibly proud to be recognized as a Top Work Place AND Best Place to Work for 2014!
In late April of 2014, New York Capital Region’s premier news source, The Times Union, awarded 45 companies the honor of Top Work Place 2014.
Townsend Leather is proud and honored to have been selected as one of them.
*UPDATE: Now Townsend Leather has been recognized a second time this year. The Albany Business Review has honored Townsend Leather as a Best Place To Work in 2014 for the Albany Area! Read more here, Townsend Leather Best Place to Work!
Each year the Times Union explores the large Greater Capital District for worthy companies. Over 600 companies were looked at as potential Top Work Place honorees. Through detailed analysis of thousands of employee submitted surveys, The Times Union and Workforce Dynamics narrowed down the top employers in the region to just 45 companies.
Each of these 45 companies, were categorized into three size categories: Large (500+ employees), Mid-Sized (150-499 employees), and Small (35-149 employees).
Townsend Leather was selected as one of the top 15 Mid-Size companies.
A team of representatives from Townsend attend the exciting and beautiful award ceremony held shortly after the honorees were announced, on Thursday, April 24th at The Desmond Hotel in Albany. The awards were handed out amongst cheers and celebration, with each company honored by a personalized tribute and company biography, as well as handpicked “theme” songs for their award-retrieval-walk.
Townsend Leather’s team waited anxiously for their name to be announced and was elated when the moment came and proudly walked to the podium to the tune of the “Cheers Theme Song”/Everybody Knows Your Name! Everyone felt it was a fitting song, as everyone who works at Townsend feels like family, and the Townsend Leather name is known across the world. It feels great to spend every day at a place where “everybody knows your name” and truly cares about the job they do and the people they work alongside.
“There is a family atmosphere here and everyone works as a team towards the same goal. ” – Townsend Employee
Townsend Leather was not only recognized as a Top Work Place, but was in fact ranked as the Number 4 Mid-Size Work Place! A top 5 placer!
And even more than that, Townsend Leather was the
Number 1 Manufacturer in the Greater Capital Region!
It is the Townsend employees, the Townsend community, the Townsend family that make Townsend what it is. All the employees at Townsend who come every day to share their skills and passions, push things forward, and do so with a smile on their face – this is what makes Townsend a great company and a Top Place to work. Townsend Leather was awarded this recognition for and by its employees. And it is truly the employees that have earned it because they are the people that ensure a positive and fulfilling work atmosphere. Townsend employees are some of the most passionate, hardest-working, and quality-driven people you will find anywhere. Their wholehearted and overwhelmingly positive responses to the survey questions on subjects such as the company’s vision & mission, its leadership, its sense of teamwork and community, and benefits resulted in making Townsend Leather recognized as a Top Work Place.
The Times Union stated: What stands out, once again, is that the 45 workplaces named to the list are not necessarily those that pay the most or are the most glamorous at which to work, but rather they are the places that value employee input, make people feel appreciated and foster a sense of connection — among their ranks and in the wider community.
Townsend was even singled out as a company that represented strong company ethics and values; as quoted in the Times Union:
This company operates by strong values and ethics. • Townsend Leather Co Inc
Townsend Leather Co. Inc.: “I work with great people who help each other without being asked. I love the fact that the people I work with genuinely care about my well-being.”
The morning after the award ceremony, Townsend kept the fun and celebration going with a company-wide breakfast. 
This is when most of the company first heard of the news and all joined in a celebratory cheer. And as we often do, we had customers visiting with us to tour our facility, we were excited to have them join in the fun and festivities. This short, but heartfelt celebration was a welcome break for everyone. And it was a well-deserved time to take a minute and reflect on the company that we have collectively created.
Townsend, since its inception, has been a beneficiary of charismatic, passionate, forward-thinking, incredible leaders. Terry Kucel and his wife Barbara laid the foundation of what Townsend is during its formative years, and their customer-focus and passion for quality is still the life blood that flows through Townsend today. They have successfully instilled those characteristics into the leaders of Townsend today, and President, Jared Eckler, spoke candidly with the company at our breakfast celebration about what this award means to him and can mean to all of us at Townsend.
This is an exclusive award. It is something to continually strive for. It is something the employees have direct influence on. It is something given only to the deserving. Townsend Leather can feel extremely proud to have the leadership it does, the recognition it does, and the employees it does.
We decided to show our pride by each taking turns signing our names to banners that will hang on our building, proclaiming our pride to everyone that drives to, or by, Townsend Leather.
Here are just a few of the great things Townsend’s proud partners said about Townsend Leather in their submitted surveys…
“I work with great people who help each other without being asked. I love the fact that the people I work with genuinely care about my well-being. ”
“It is a community within a community. The partners work as a family with common goal to deliver and service our customers while working in a good environment.”
“It is fun and exciting! ”
“It’s a family-owned company that truly makes every person feel as if they are part of their family. ”
“There is a family atmosphere here and everyone works as a team towards the same goal. ”
You can see the Times Union articles about the Top Work Places honor here:
And see some photos of the Award Ceremony evening here:
Or visit the Top Work Place website to see Townsend in the listing, Top Work Places