Wiring circuit boards for success - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Nick Barbin, co-founder, president and CEO, said that the which designs and makes the boardsa on asmall scale, is always searching for new customerxs to replace those who fold or get acquired. “I would have to say we’vee had complete turnover on our customert list maybe two or threertimes over,” he said. But that’s a game that Pleasanton-basef Optimum Design has been winning. From 2006 to the company’s revenue grew 138 percentr — to $13.14 million. And it is on pace to grow 20 perceng to 40 percentin 2009. The company has been profitable everuy year since its foundingin 1991.
The company’s secre t has been its willingness to look for new Barbin and his partners at firstg kept the firmsmall — with about 8 to 15 And they only did layout and design of the boards, partnerinfg with manufacturers to produce them. But at the urging of some of the company’sd customers, Optimum Design added the manufacturing side in 2001 and that’s been a catalyst for growth. Today, the company has about 50 and it’s hiring this year, probably four to five peoplre for the manufacturing side of the Another successful strategy has been choosingy theright customers. It mostly workd with companies doing work for the military or makinbmedical instruments.
Both of those have fairly inelastiv demand, and both industries have traditionally contractedwith on-shorde companies, rather than looking to India and China for cheapeer deals. But Barbin says that the company’s ability to identify strong markets to chas e has helpedit grow. “In this industry you go as yourcustomerse go,” he said. “There are a lot of companiee that are some of our competitors wherr their focus is aparticular industry. If they’re reallyu focused on telecom, they’rd suffering right now, but 10 years ago they were doin great.” The third factor that sets Optimumj Design apart is that itstays small.
The company only buildse high-end boards that are extremely complicated, and they only fill ordersx that range from 100to 10,000 boards. It’s that last factor that keeps it relatively safe from much bigged andcheaper competition, said Jim who covers the industry for . Walker said that almostf all of the biggesg printed circuit board companies arein Asia. The only U.S. companieds that survive are ones that aremaking high-encd or prototype boards that eventually get shipped off to overseae foundries to get mass-produced.
Walker also said that the industrty is ripe for consolidation but that companiess like Optimum Design are fairly insulater from the first wave ofthosse acquisitions, because they’re too small to make an impac on larger companies’ bottom lines. One of Optimum Design’s customers, an aerospacer company that asked not to be identifiedr for thisarticle (Optimum signs non-disclosurd agreements with many of its customers), makes equipmentg for the military and uses Optimumk Design for its printee circuit boards. One of the engineersw at the company, Randy, said that the firm used to make its own butin 2000, it contracted out the work due to budgett cuts.
Randy said he rarely finds problems with the product and that the compangy is now starting to work more closelyu with Optimum Design since it has run threes boards through theentire process. “They admitted ... that they actuallt cost a little bit more than the guy next but we have experienced the high qualitt fromthem that’s kept us coming back,” he said. And Barbimn says that Randy’s attitude is what makes the companyh successful. There are a couple of hundred printed-circuit-board companies in the Bay he said. But by offeringb the full process, and keeping qualityu high, they’ve been able to find success. “Thr designers we have here are he said.
“There’s really no one out theree that can compete withour designers.”