Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | FEBRUARY 6, 2022 11 Building Ideas That Work... Contact us at 860.482.7613 or visit us at BorghesiBuilding.com 2155 East Main Street Torrington, Connecticut 06790 © 2011 BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. All rights reserved. Butler Manufacturing ™ is a division of BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. Borghesi Building & Engineering Co., Inc. will guide you in defining your project goals, help analyze your prospective property and provide a realistic budget. For more than 80 years, Borghesi Building & Engineering Co., Inc. has provided quality and reliability with design and energy efficient construction. With an attractive design, it presents to your customers a comfortable relaxing environment to help promote sales. You will appreciate the quality your facility presents. FUJI PLAZA, TORRINGTON MEN'S WEARHOUSE, WEST SIMSBURY WALGREENS, TORRINGTON Joining Technologies Engineering Supervisor Tyler Modlish and Welding Technician Evan Tilli set up a machine to work on a mirror mount assembly, part of a CO2 laser. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER to work locally as a setup assistant in Massachusetts-based manufacturer EBTEC's welding department. That's where he met Hudson, who had the same job. Francoeur said he had a knack for the trade and was quickly invited to become a welding trainee. "I had an aptitude for metals and for fusing metals," Francoeur said. "It came very quickly and naturally." Looking for work a few years later, Francoeur answered a Penny Saver ad for a sound engineer job with a local band. He was surprised when his old acquaintance, Hudson, picked up the phone. That's how Francoeur became the sound engineer and harmonica player for a ZZ Top tribute band called "Fandango." Hudson played bass guitar. "We were together for a year and a half," Hudson recalled. "Mike went his own way and became entrepre- neurial. I became a corporate guy." Hudson spent 20 years with Enfield-based paper-industry machinery maker Jagenberg Inc., becoming its director of procurement. Hudson said he left that business for opportunities that didn't pan out and eventually took a job as a salesman for a small machine shop. In November 2004, he called Joining Technologies trying to sell the company welding services. He eventually spoke to Francoeur. "The next thing you know it dawned on us we actually knew each other," Hudson recalled. "So, I went in to see Michael and in a very short time we decided to see if we could do something together and grow this really nice little company that Michael had started." Hudson was hired as vice pres- ident of sales and marketing in 2005. At the time, the company employed 24 people. Six months later, Hudson was named president, freeing Francoeur to deal with a personal challenge. The duo's business partnership and friendship quickly deepened. Last year, Hudson bought 50% of Joining Industries. "Every dollar we make we tear in half," Francoeur joked. "The accounting is easy." Bumps in the road Building the business hasn't been an uninterrupted string of successes, Francoeur stressed. There have been setbacks and soured relation- ships along the way. Shortly after launching Dynamic Electron Beam, Francoeur partnered with two investors who, after about a year of struggle, decided to cash out. Francoeur said he knelt at the base of the roughly 50-foot tall illuminated cross at Holy Land — a shuttered religious theme park atop a hill in Waterbury — and prayed hard. A week later, Francoeur was sitting in his tiny office, thinking about how to find work as he listened to his investor-partners talk about dismantling the business. One of them picked through a stack of mail — mostly bills that Fran- coeur said he was too dejected to even contemplate. "He opens this mail and it was a purchase order for $30,000, which at that time was enormous, and it was from Bristol Babcock," Francoeur said. That saved the business. But Francoeur and his partners parted ways in 1989. Three years later, Francoeur launched a new company — Energy Beam Labs Inc. — in a leased industrial condo off Route 10 in Cheshire. That business would ultimately grow into Joining Indus- tries. Francoeur said he planned a far more regimented, innovative and professional atmosphere. "I wanted to be a laboratory," Fran- coeur said. "I wanted to be where people came with their problematic issues, where I would solve the problem and create the process at a very high level." Francoeur said he believes the company he founded is likely to double in size in five years. "With all of this reshoring, there are very few people that do what we do," Francoeur said. "We do subcontracting manufacturing and we automate factories. It's huge."

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