Albany-Chicago was recognized with an Economic Impact Award at the 2010 Kenosha County Business Excellence Awards because it made investments in both equipment and new employees as a result of a significant project from a new customer.
This year, it is being recognized as one of the Fast Five growth companies in Kenosha County.
“We continue to obtain new business from our customers…and we’ve continued to grow and add jobs,” said chief executive officer Mike Altschaefl.
Albany makes gear case housings and shock towers for major car manufacturers, as well as parts for diesel truck engines, at two buildings totaling 194,000-square-feet in Pleasant Prairie. The company added 25 people this year, and is now at 325 employees.
Altschaefl attributes Albany-Chicago’s success to its position in the marketplace.
“We’ve invested in some new technologies that allow us to provide a certain type of part to the automotive industry that is unique to us,” he said. “Secondly, we have a heavy concentration of business in the automotive sector and that has been pretty strong the last couple of years.”
Since he became CEO in 2008, Altschaefl has worked to expand Albany-Chicago’s business in the automotive market and develop a niche in aluminum structural components.
“There is a very big trend of auto companies trying to reduce weights of their vehicles, and they’ve been doing that by replacing steel with aluminum,” he said.
Bio Fab Technologies Inc. in Kenosha has a diverse product mix. The company engineers and fabricates stainless steel products ranging from small trinkets to multi-million dollar engineered systems.
Its customers are commercial, industrial and residential, with products like high end residential countertops and industrial piping.
Bio Fab has seen significant growth in the past few years. The company increased its revenue by 39 percent from 2010 to 2011 and projects it will boost its revenue by 40 percent in 2012.
In addition to increasing its customer base, particularly in the food and pharmaceutical industries, Bio Fab has shipped about 20 percent more of its product overseas, said co-owner Paul Freude.
“We’re increasing our exports,” Freude said. “We’re exporting well over 40 percent of the products we produced in 2012, and those are mainly being sent to European countries.”
In 2010, Bio Fab had 17 employees on average. It now has 23 to 24 on average, with plans to hire another engineer or two soon.
Freude attributes Bio Fab’s success to low overhead that keeps pricing competitive and having managers who are active on all levels of the organization.
In addition, the company’s employees react quickly to the needs of customers, he said.
“We are open 20 hours per day, work in two shifts and are also staffed on most weekends too,” Freude said.
The kitchen cabinet market saw some tough times during the Great Recession when residential construction activity plummeted. Several Kenosha-area cabinet shops closed their doors.
But after Jake Molgaard was laid off from a cabinet company that went out of business, he and his brother Zach decided to start their own business. They opened Kitchen Cubes in Kenosha in 2007.
Molgaard looked at the challenging market as an advantage for the new company.
“We never knew the good old days,” Molgaard said. “All we know is working hard at thinner margins.”
The company is growing quickly, about 30 percent per year, and will be up more than 50 percent in 2012. Kitchen Cubes added 12 of its 17 employees in 2012.
This year, the Molgaards opened a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Bristol. Now, in addition to selling kitchen and bath retail products, the company manufactures countertops for multi-family home managers and other dealers like themselves.
“We kind of went from a little guy to we’re starting to make some pretty good progress in the industry,” Molgaard said.
The brothers started Kitchen Cubes because they saw an opportunity in a market where other businesses had failed.
“No. 1 there was a big need for it. No. 2 we have the experience to do it. And No. 3 We had people that were already trained and ready to go that were basically without a job,” Molgaard said.
Mikrotech LLC in Kenosha specializes in very small parts, some of which can fit on a space as small as a fingernail.
Using special injection molding equipment, the company micro manufactures custom miniature components and subassemblies for medical devices. Some of its products are used in minimally invasive surgery.
The company was started as part of Kenosha-based ASYST Technologies in 2004, and split off as an independent company in 2010.
Since then, it has been growing in both employment and revenue, said president Kevin Brennan.
“We’ve doubled our sales year-over-year for the last two years,” Brennan said. “We’re making progress, but it’s still a developing company.”
Last year, Mikrotech expanded in the Business Park of Kenosha and invested in a specialized production cell that doubles the precision and repeatability of conventional equipment.
Mikrotech provides plastic micro machining, micro molding, micro subassembly and engineering assistance to device designers and manufacturers.
The company has pioneered the development of intricate surgical components that are less costly than other available options.
“Micromolding is a fairly new technology and we were one of the first ones to get involved with it,” he said. “We have a process that is different and could save (customers) in their component purchases and also allow them to be more flexible in their design.”
Pleasant Prairie-based Specialized Accounting Services has a presence in 46 states, providing accounting, payroll and tax services to about 300 clients.
The company provides tailored assistance to customers and clients from wherever they are across the country, said Jamie Hogan, president and owner.
“All of our work is done out of our office in Kenosha—we don’t outsource anything,” Hogan said.
SAS has been in business for five years, and has hired eight of its 25 employees this year.
Specialized Accounting’s hands-on approach to serving clients sets it apart from competitors, Hogan said.
“Primarily, we have our staff, our consultants, work directly with our clients to help them meet their needs,” he said. “We’re very in tune with customer service.”
Hogan started SAS to target small businesses being managed by owners, who need help with making the right business decisions and meeting their goals.
“There just was a lack of businesses doing what we do in this market, with a high level of customer service for owner managed businesses,” he said. “I saw an opportunity and went for it.”
Clients are SAS’ biggest source of referrals, which has helped the company grow quickly, Hogan said.
“We’re really heavy in the auto parts industry and the word is out in that industry that we’re a very viable partner to work with,” he said.
