What’s the story behind a 30-year-old woman going from competitive figure skating to running a New Jersey company manufacturing components for the Hubble Telescope and the Mars rover?
Brielle Freda Seminerio, the 30-year-old in question, might start her answer this way: How much time do you have?
It’s a relevant question when setting the stage in 1919, as she does. That’s the year her great-grandfather, a craftsman, started a Newark business manufacturing parts for metal-working firms. Several generations (and a relocation to Fairfield) later, Salvatore Freda Jr., her father, continued on that family-owned manufacturing legacy at Brewster Washers.
It’s a legacy she’s cherishing now more than ever. In what she calls an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events — her father died after a battle with cancer last year.
“It was hard for all of us,” Freda Seminerio said. “He was sick for nine months before falling completely ill to cancer. We all grieved our own way. But we still came into work the next day, because that’s what he would’ve wanted.”
The torch was passed to her, as she was named president of Brewster Washers, and her brother, Thomas Freda, who was named vice president.
Freda Seminerio, a former Team USA figure skater, had been coaching synchronized ice skating teams in the five years prior to her father’s cancer diagnosis.
She had also retained a role at the family business. And, it goes without saying, she and her brother spent a lot of time inside the manufacturer’s offices growing up.
“As I always tell people, this job was like our playground,” she said. “I used to sit on my grandma’s lap at her typewriter. She’d be typing away, and I’d watch her. She’d let me type on blank paper for fun.”
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As Freda Seminerio describes it, the succession plan at Brewsters Washers had been for a fairly typical family business transition. Her father was going to retire gradually, to step away from certain operations and management roles while continuing to make appearances for the company at various trade shows.
Instead, Freda Seminerio spent the months leading up to her father’s Sept. 2023 passing next to his hospital bed. She’d have her laptop, she said, and he’d have all the advice. He’d start every morning during his cancer battle teaching her about the business.
There was a lot to learn each day about the highly specialized business, which manufactures washers and fasteners for niche industrial purposes — not the kind found on the shelves of retailers. The company, which expanded into new markets under Freda-Seminerio’s late father, is among the select manufacturers certified to provide parts for aerospace customers. The business also has clients in the defense and medical sectors, as well as robotics and other high-tech industries.
Tasked now with leading that firm, which has annual revenues of more than $1 million, Freda Seminerio said she learned from the best. The other members of the company’s modest, 8-person team agree.
“Everyone that comes in says how great a man (my father) was,” she said. “He’d give you the shirt off his back. In this role, if he wasn’t able to do it himself, he’d find someone who could. He was the best. That’s how I try to help our new and current customers. I try to help them out, no matter what.”
She’s also following in her father’s footsteps by attending as many manufacturing events as she can regionally to become a more familiar face in the industry.
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When telling the story of Freda Seminerio, don’t discount the figure skating background.
Seminerio, who competed in synchronized ice skating across Europe and took her parents overseas for those competitions, said there’s a potentially underappreciated discipline involved in the sport.
“It very much involves not only working within a team, but being a leader,” she said. “And that’s helping me in the role I have today.”
Standing back up after falling down on the ice — time and time again — takes a drive and persistence she expects will serve her well.
Getting her business back on its feet after her father’s death and being recently recognized by the NJMEP during their annual “MADE in New Jersey” Manufacturing Day event (as well as a Women in Business influencer selection from ROI-NJ this year), is just the first example of that.
“We’ve been in business for 105 years, with outstanding quality and performance for customers throughout that,” she said. “We’d love to uphold a family tradition and continue for another 105.”
Conversation Starter
Reach Brewster Washers at brewster-washers.com or call 973-227-1050.
