Hartford Business Journal

32 Hartford Business Journal | March 8, 2021 | HartfordBusiness.com By Matthew Broderick Special to the Hartford Business Journal A s the supply chain director for family-owned exercise equipment manufacturer Concept2, Glenn Dwyer has a problem many businesses these days would dream of: skyrocketing demand. The Vermont-based company, which produces stationary rowing, skiing and biking machines, has seen sales explode over the past 12 months, driven largely by the booming home-equipment market during the pandemic. "We still have a six-week waiting list for our products," Dwyer said. The backlog is the dual result of both a state-mandated shut down of Concept2's manufacturing facility last spring and supply chain challenges on a number of fronts, Dwyer said. "We continue to struggle to secure the materials needed to operate production at maximum capacity," Dwyer explained. One vendor that has come through for Concept2 is Bolton, Connecticut- based Able Coil & Electronics Co. (ACE), a small manufacturer of precision-wound coils, transformers and electrical assemblies. The company makes the electrical parts that interface with Concept2's machines' ergometer to monitor and communicate performance data to the user. "That data is one of the most critical components of our machines," Dwyer said. The demand for Concept2's products has bolstered Able Coil's production and bottom line, says Steve Rockefeller, the company's president. While some manufacturers in Connecticut have scaled back during the pandemic, ACE has expanded its operations including the January completion of a new 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, adorned with solar panels, and an adjacent 5,600-square-foot corporate office, both located on Howard Road in Bolton. Rockefeller, who has led the 50-year-old company his father founded since 1993, credits his diverse client base with weathering the current climate. "Our success and growth have really been about the mix of businesses," Rockefeller said. "That has kept [our business] stable." That mix includes hundreds of clients across a number of industries, including laser, military, communications, commercial equipment, medical, music and audio and automotive. Rockefeller has offset the shrinking demand for parts in certain sectors — like aerospace — over the past year with big upswings in other industries. In fact, ACE has seen significant growth in laser, medical and commercial equipment, with some clients tripling orders to keep pace with market demand. That's helped ACE close out 2020 with nearly $10 million in revenue, up five- fold during his 28-year leadership tenure, despite not having sales reps or a marketing team. Rockefeller says his employee base and business have doubled over the past five years, with nearly 80% of ACE's annual revenues, he estimates, coming from its 10 top clients, with the remainder generated from hundreds of smaller clients. Center of excellence Rockefeller says success has been driven by reputation and strategic investment in 3D print technology systems, which have expanded the company's ability to design and create prototypes for clients. "Our philosophy is custom," Rockefeller said, noting that customizing products to meet customer needs is a core part of ACE's business model. That's because his company — and its 85 employees — create parts that customers can't find in a catalog. "Perhaps [the part] has to operate at a higher temperature, in severe conditions or at an odd voltage," Rockefeller explained. "We leverage our knowledge and technology to help customers achieve what they want." Rockefeller sees his company less as a product-based business and more of a service-based one. "I'm not marketing a product; the [end] product is my customer's," Rockefeller said. "We do much of the legwork to design and test a prototype and go through that whole process for a customer." Rockefeller, an engineer, has invested heavily in recent years in 3D printers to be able to build more prototypes in-house, a time-saving benefit for the company and a value- add for clients. And with the addition of his new environmentally-friendly $4 million production facility, on top of the company's existing 13,000 square feet of manufacturing space, Rockefeller has created a new center of excellence to cater to the demands of tech-savvy players in the medical and aerospace markets that are accustomed to high-end finishes and more sophisticated infrastructure than ACE previously had. The new location was created with maximum flexibility for assembly line configurations. "We're a job shop really so we're constantly changing assembly lines and work centers," Rockefeller explained. To accommodate that, the new facility has power sources every 25 feet allowing employees to set up, break down and combine multiple production lines to satisfy larger demands. That's welcome news for Concept2's Dwyer, who says ACE has done a great job of accommodating his company's growth while maintaining excellent quality and fair pricing. And with COVID-19 keeping people largely sidelined at home still, there will likely be enough business to keep Concept2's exercise machines and ACE's coils and revenue spinning for the foreseeable future. COMPANY PROFILE: Able Coil & Electric Co. Able Coil and Electronics recently debuted a new 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility (shown above) on Howard Road in Bolton. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Able Coil workers make precision-wound coils, transformers and electrical assemblies. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Bolton's diversified Able Coil & Electronics sees growth amid pandemic Steven Rockefeller At a Glance: Company: Able Coil & Electronics Co. Industry: Manufacturing Top Executive: Steven Rockefeller, President HQ: 25 Howard Road, Bolton Company Website: https://www. ablecoil.com/ Phone Number: 860-646-5686

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