Location: 6110 N. Flint Road, Milwaukee
Website: www.s3international.com
Year Founded: 2005
Product or Service offered: S3 International is a distributor providing complete logistic support, material distribution, and managed solutions required for aircraft maintenance and operational sustainment.
Projected 2010 Revenue: Not disclosed
President: Jeff Wnuk
Other key leadership members: Sebastien Imbert, vice president of sales; Aksel Sidem, general manager
Target Clientele: Military Aircraft Operaters and Repair Stations
Business Organization Memberships: MMAC, Aeronautical Repair Station Association
What has fueled your company’s growth?
“There are multiple factors that have sustained our company’s growth, but one of the primary causes has been our awareness to capitalize on our ability as a small business to respond quickly. Being a small company allows us to listen to our customers and offer flexible, personalized, and relevant solutions minimizing maintenance costs and reducing aircraft downtime. As the market continues to change due to the economic conditions, technology developments, and changing business models our company’s agility allows us to react and adapt very quickly to meet the market demands and changes.”
What has been the biggest obstacle to your company’s growth?
“Growth is always a challenge for any business, but more so, for a small company with financial restraints and less access to credit. Unlike many of our larger firm counterparts, limited financial resources limit the human resources to meet the demand growth opportunities. It also restricts our capacity to invest in innovative technology. This financial limitation coupled with our customer’s cutbacks, due to the global economic downturn, has impacted growth.”
Do you have any planned changes for your company in the coming months?
“Wasted resources and time can easily destroy a small company, thus achieving and maintaining peak efficiency is not an option for our organization and is vital to our long term sustainability. Because efficient productivity is so crucial we plan on investing in key technology assets and internal training of our human resources to improve efficiency, performance, and to streamline internal operations.”
Who are the business people, locally or nationally, whom you admire? What traits do those people exhibit that make you admire them?
“We admire entrepreneurs who take risks, display courage, confidence, and lead their teams to success.”
What is the outlook for the business conditions of your industry over the next several months?
“Over the past 18 months our industry has been greatly affected by the economic downturn and the stagnant United States defense market has faced its first major downturn since the mid 1990s. The European budget crisis is forcing steep budgetary cutbacks and will result in significantly reduced military spending. However, the military and defense market is expected to slowly recover over the next 12 to 18 months with much of the rapid growth coming from the emergent defense markets.”
What has been your company’s key strategy for rising out of the recession?
“We believe that by implementing the changes mentioned above, by focusing on core business, and expanding into new markets, we will enable our company to continue its growth despite the slow recovery from the recession.”
Congratulations from the strategic partner behind S3 International LLC
Karen Lepowski
(262) 797-0400
www.v-b.com
