Make a telephone call anywhere in the world today and that call will transmit over a Winchester Electronics product.
The company makes the interconnects for high-end radio frequency technology in Motorola and Horizon II base stations; in the next generation of cellular infrastructure; for high-end test equipment used by telecommunications, semiconductor industries and general test instrumentation around the world. Customers include Motorola, Boeing, NBC and all other major broadcast networks, GE Healthcare, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Alcatel and others.
The global company, headquartered in Wallingford, Conn., has operations in Massachusetts; Rock Hill, South Carolina; Nogales, Mexico; Suzhou, China; and Penang, Malaysia.
Six years ago, Winchester was a $37 million company. Since then, the company has grown to $110 million in revenue.
"We deal with U.S. companies with global operations. Our products go into Boeing aircraft, as well as broadcasting electronics used by all major networks," said Michael Driscoll, CEO and president. "The products we design and build are unique."
The company tagline is "Connecting Innovation to Application."
In June 2006, the Audax Group of Boston and Winchester company management completed a buyout from Northrop Grumman, and in 2007 acquired two companies.
The lion's share of work in Wallingford is product design and development.
"My job is to give the company the what and the why. It's everyone else's job to figure out the how," said Driscoll. "As long as I surround myself with really smart people the how becomes a lot easier."
Before and After
The company is far from a newcomer. It was founded in 1941 and was part of Litton Industries since 1960s. Litton was acquired by Northrop Grumman in 2000. (The name, Winchester, by the way, comes from a town in Massachusetts that the original owners loved. There is no connection past or present to the famed firearms manufacturer.)
The company moved from its blue-collar origins in Watertown, Conn., to Wallingford by choice.
In June 2006, with the help of the Audax Group in Boston, the management team acquired Winchester from Northrop Grumman.
In April 2007, Winchester acquired Advanced Interconnect, a cable assembly manufacturer located in Franklin, Mass.
"That brought in a stronger position in the military and medical markets," said Driscoll.
Then, six weeks later, the company bought Kings Electronics in Rock Hill, South Carolina, an RF manufacturer well established in broadcast electronics and commercial and military aviation markets.
"As part of Northrop, we struggled to be in the $50 million range. With Audex, the company has grown to more than $100 million and can focus on strategic acquisitions."
The Wallingford headquarters serves as the nerve center for global operations.
The value to customers boils down to four basic concepts: Technical expertise to solve problems. Globally positioned factories that focus on high mix, low volume manufacturing. An IT infrastructure that facilitates the need to communicate across the globe for customers who don't have the time or knowledge to handle.
Going Places
"Our vision is very simple. We intend to be the recognized leader in engineered interconnect solutions. By employing established and advanced technologies we deliver real value to our customers," said Driscoll.
The common thread to all operations is to "foster an environment where people can rapidly innovate and provide solutions that enable customers to maximize their product's function against competition. When Motorola says 'we need something that looks like this, but has to do that,' they come to us. We know how to make it do that, and that solution gives them a competitive advantage."
An interesting statistic: 98 percent of what the company builds in Asia stays in China and Malaysia.
"What most Americans don't understand is the jobs that have been lost - at least in our industry - aren't necessarily tied to the fact that people can't make it here in the U.S. As the infrastucture is built in other countries, the government says to them that they need local indigenous content and jobs, because 'you are selling this into my country.'
"Winchester was probably one of the first companies in China that decided to do high mix, low volume. We needed a supply chain that understood our manufacturing premise. We have gone there to train people in our supply chain. To this day, I believe that not one of the companies which we view as competitors in this market can do what what Winchester can do with regard to high mix, low volume solutions.:
That was not the case in 2000. The locations changed the concept.
We design these products, we build them wherever the customer wants to buy them - and we have to be able to communicate. So we develop an IT infrastructure that I view as a competitive weapon. As we move into more and more locations, customers want support in local time and local tongue. Which they should. Our customers can call our factory at each location across the globe and get answers in real time.
"If a salesperson brings an opportunity to us, our engineers collaborate and design the product. If the customers says 'I think this is exactly what I am looking for - but now I want to see the product, and I want the prototype built locally so I can get my hands on it quickly.' No problem. Our Nogales facility accesses our IT database and builds the product and ships it to the engineer. He loves it, says 'it's exaclty what I want. Now here's the hook - we need to go into production around the world.' So our engineers access the database, which includes all the engineering, the CAD drawings - everything to build and ship it anywhere the customer wants it to go. All this is done without generating one piece of paper. That's how we use our IT infrastructure as a competitive weapon. I guarantee that there is not a competitor that can do what we do in the lead-times we promise to our customers.
"We design and simulate to the customer's requirement long before we even think about cutting steel to manufacture our products."
So what is the company's outlook?
