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58 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2016 INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › Manufacturing B usiness is a delicate dance of strategy and placement — and for Horst Engi- neering and Manufacturing Co., the right fit turned out to be the location it has called home for 70 years. e family-owned aerospace supply chain manufacturer recently shuttered a plant in Sonora, Mexico, that it opened a decade ago, re-establishing those operations stateside in Connecticut. "We've been faced with making some long-term decisions," said Horst CEO Scott Livingston. "We decided that if we were go- ing to make commitments and expand, we were going to do that in New England. We made the decision to increase our business in Connecticut." South of the border In 2006, incentivized by the established aerospace hub in Arizona that was thought to be expanding southward into Mexico, Horst, a third-generation precision manufacturing company, opened a plant in Sonora with 50 workers, complementing its locations in Con- necticut and Massachusetts. "It was always about growing our busi- ness," said Livingston. While initially motivated by local enthusiasm and the promises and pledges of new partners and contracts, the challenges quickly began to outweigh the benefits, he asserted. e Great Recession hit, and some investors failed on their commitments. And although the workforce was younger south of the border than the graying workforce oen lamented in the states, it was "a lot less experienced," and skilled labor wasn't nearly as readily available as it is here. Also, the supply chain was lacking. "It wasn't develop- ing at the pace it needed to," said Livingston. Horst monitored the move over a matter of several months, and, when its lease came due, it shut down operations, completing that process in February 2015. Still, moving the operation back to the states wasn't without its challenges. Although "manufacturing has been one of the highlights of the (U.S.) economy," Liv- ingston said, "there is some weakening that's going on now. We've seen the labor market tighten. It's been challenging to replace all the manufacturing in Mexico." e better part of 2015 was spent building additional capacity between the company's Connecticut and Massachusetts locations, Livingston said. at included launching a 16,000-square-foot satellite plant in South Windsor that now houses its Swiss screw machines. e manufacturer also added 20 workers in various capacities throughout its operations, which include East Hartford and Lynn, Mass. All told, it has 110 employees in Connecticut, with another 41 in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, it is in the midst of upgrad- ing IT infrastructure and enterprise resource planning systems in East Hartford, with a CT Manufacturer Brings Growth Back Home By Taryn Plumb Rick Gdovin, an employee at Horst Engineering and Manufacturing Co. PHOTO/PABLO ROBLES