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www.HartfordBusiness.com • June 15, 2020 • Hartford Business Journal 11 Quality Construction + Butler Manufacturing = Repeat Customers www.borghesibuilding.com © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. 2155 East Main Street • Torrington, Connecticut 06790 Stevens Manufacturing, Milford, CT | 1990 | 22,000 sq. ft. • 1998 | Addition — 5,000 sq. ft. 2009 | Addition — 8,300 sq. ft. • 2016 | Addition — 29,000 sq. ft. Contact us at 860-482-7613 or visit us on the web. WE HELP INJURED WORKERS that's our job. Gaylord is a health system focused on medical rehabilitation. • Dedicated Workers' Compensation team • Telehealth options for both medical and therapy services • 4 convenient locations • Hospital, Outpatient Services, and Physical Therapy – 3 levels of care gaylord.org Think Possible Cheshire | Cromwell | North Haven | Wallingford FOCUS: SMALL BUSINESS didn't dampen Kania's entrepre- neurial spirit. The plan to launch Intelligent Cutting Solutions, or ICS, as a sister company was hatched last year and there were serious talks to shelve it amid the pandemic. However, Kania said he still sees a good opportunity for the busi- ness, which he is launching with his partner Ibrahim Ibrahim as part of a $750,000 investment. That's covering the cost to pur- chase two, $250,000 waterjet cutting machines that will be used to cut sheet metal for aerospace, defense and medical device manufacturers, among other potential clients. They also paid for a new website and an old rundown industrial build- ing at 39 Progress Drive in Newing- ton, which is currently being renovat- ed ahead of a planned August opening. Kania said there are few Con- necticut companies that specialize in waterjet cutting services, which are coveted in the aerospace indus- try because the cold-cutting process doesn't use heat that could thermal- ly damage or destroy metals. The coronavirus has dampened some of his expectations. He was originally projecting $500,000 in sales in year one, and $1.5 million in sales by year two. He's cut those esti- mates in half, but is still bullish and excited to be launching the business despite the tough environment. "That entrepreneurial spirit is still out there, that way of figuring out how to do business no matter what the conditions are," Kania said. "I think that's what makes America a great country." hit with its 650-square-foot taproom being closed, although the temporary closure has likely boosted curbside sales. In its first two weeks of operation, Phantom sold out its entire stock of 2,000 growlers and has been selling hundreds of growlers per week since then. Patrei said the "incredible" response to Phantom's launch has restored his faith in early projec- tions that showed the brewery could generate estimated annual revenue of $200,000 to $400,000 in the years following the COVID-19 outbreak. "We really just need more time to project that relationship between the two sides of our business and we are very excited about what this can be," he said. "For now, we are going to just focus on making beer at the proper pace and selling that beer in a to-go format."