EMSCO employee Vanry Touch assembles a circuit board. (Photos by Lena Price)
Making parts for floor-scrubbing robots takes a lot space.
More than the 5,000 square feet EMSCO, a Hanover manufacturing firm, has leased since 2004. To keep up with increased demand, the 10-person company recently bought a building more than twice the size of their original location.
“Our volume’s been increasing since the economy started coming back after the recession,” owner Parker Garrett said. “The move’s going to give us flexibility to keep growing.”
Parker Garrett, left, and Ken Goodrow.
EMSCO manufactures made-to-order parts used in machines, mostly circuit boards and wire harnesses that conduct power or send electrical signals. The firm’s parts show up in such diverse environments as mining machines and laboratory equipment.
And now the company is set to expand into a 12,000-square-foot warehouse down the road from their current location near the Hanover County Municipal Airport.
The building cost about $550,000, and the company invested another $125,000 to renovate the space. They financed part of the expansion internally and the rest through Chesapeake Bank.
They supply robotics company Intellibot and bowling equipment manufacturer Qubica AMF. (Not to be confused with AMF Bowling Worldwide, the Mechanicsville-based company that filed last week for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.)
“Everything we do is built to order,” Garrett said. “We don’t make a certain product and go out and market it. Customers bring us drawings or an idea, and we’ll put it into production.”
EMSCO’s average client orders between 10 and 200 parts a month, Garrett said. Basic pieces can cost as little as $2, and more elaborate components can run up to $2,000 each.
Garrett and company founder Ken Goodrow are both U.S. Naval Academy graduates with backgrounds in electrical engineering. Goodrow was a manufacturing engineer for General Motors, and Garrett was a submarine technician in the Navy.
“I’ve never been on the manufacturing side of the process before I started here,” Garrett said. “But I’ve literally been part of team trying to put out a fire after a malfunction, so I know firsthand how important it is.”
Goodrow started EMSCO out of his garage in 2001. He said he did everything by hand with a few essential pieces of equipment.
Moving all of the equipment and inventory to the new space will take about two months, Garrett said.
“It’s a process,” Garrett said. “But we’re going to have minimal interruption in our production time.”
EMSCO employee Vanry Touch assembles a circuit board. (Photos by Lena Price)
Making parts for floor-scrubbing robots takes a lot space.
More than the 5,000 square feet EMSCO, a Hanover manufacturing firm, has leased since 2004. To keep up with increased demand, the 10-person company recently bought a building more than twice the size of their original location.
“Our volume’s been increasing since the economy started coming back after the recession,” owner Parker Garrett said. “The move’s going to give us flexibility to keep growing.”
Parker Garrett, left, and Ken Goodrow.
EMSCO manufactures made-to-order parts used in machines, mostly circuit boards and wire harnesses that conduct power or send electrical signals. The firm’s parts show up in such diverse environments as mining machines and laboratory equipment.
And now the company is set to expand into a 12,000-square-foot warehouse down the road from their current location near the Hanover County Municipal Airport.
The building cost about $550,000, and the company invested another $125,000 to renovate the space. They financed part of the expansion internally and the rest through Chesapeake Bank.
They supply robotics company Intellibot and bowling equipment manufacturer Qubica AMF. (Not to be confused with AMF Bowling Worldwide, the Mechanicsville-based company that filed last week for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.)
“Everything we do is built to order,” Garrett said. “We don’t make a certain product and go out and market it. Customers bring us drawings or an idea, and we’ll put it into production.”
EMSCO’s average client orders between 10 and 200 parts a month, Garrett said. Basic pieces can cost as little as $2, and more elaborate components can run up to $2,000 each.
Garrett and company founder Ken Goodrow are both U.S. Naval Academy graduates with backgrounds in electrical engineering. Goodrow was a manufacturing engineer for General Motors, and Garrett was a submarine technician in the Navy.
“I’ve never been on the manufacturing side of the process before I started here,” Garrett said. “But I’ve literally been part of team trying to put out a fire after a malfunction, so I know firsthand how important it is.”
Goodrow started EMSCO out of his garage in 2001. He said he did everything by hand with a few essential pieces of equipment.
Moving all of the equipment and inventory to the new space will take about two months, Garrett said.
“It’s a process,” Garrett said. “But we’re going to have minimal interruption in our production time.”
Parker, Good article on EMSCO. Nice attribution to Chesapeake Bank. Frank should give you a discount…..
Nice article on an interesting, growing business.