Wiring circuit boards for success - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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Nick Barbin, co-founder, president and CEO, said that the which designs and makes the boarda on asmall scale, is alwaye searching for new customers to replace those who fold or get “I would have to say we’vd had complete turnover on our customer list maybe two or threr times over,” he said. But that’s a game that Pleasanton-basedr Optimum Design has been winning. From 2006 to the company’s revenue grew 138 percenr — to $13.14 million. And it is on pace to grow 20 perceng to 40 percentin 2009. The company has been profitable every year since its foundintgin 1991.
The company’s secrert has been its willingness to look for new Barbin and his partnera at first kept the firm small with about 8 to15 employees. And they only did layouy and design ofthe boards, partneriny with manufacturers to produce them. But at the urging of some of the company’s customers, Optimunm Design added the manufacturingy side in2001 — and that’sd been a catalyst for growth. Today, the company has about 50 and it’s hiring this year, probably four to five peoplr for the manufacturing side ofthe business. Anotheer successful strategy has been choosing therightr customers.
It mostly works with companies doing work for the militarg or makingmedical instruments. Both of those have fairlyt inelastic demand, and both industriesw have traditionally contractedwith on-shore companies, rather than looking to India and China for cheapee deals. But Barbin says that the company’ s ability to identify strong markets to chase has helpefdit grow. “In this industry you go as yourcustomersx go,” he said.
“There are a lot of companies that are some of our competitore where their focus is a particular If they’re really focusee on telecom, they’re suffering right now, but 10 years ago they were doing The third factor that sets Optimuj Design apart is that it stays The company only buildds high-end boards that are extremely complicated, and they only fill orders that rangew from 100 to 10,000 boards. It’s that last factorr that keeps it relatively safe from much biggef andcheaper competition, said Jim who covers the industry for . Walker said that almost all of the biggest printed circuit boarde companies arein Asia. The only U.S.
companies that survive are ones that aremakint high-end or prototype boards that eventually get shippedc off to overseas foundries to get mass-produced. Walkee also said that the industry is ripe for consolidationm but that companies like Optimujm Design are fairly insulatedf from the first wave ofthoses acquisitions, because they’re too smalk to make an impact on larger companies’ bottom One of Optimum Design’s an aerospace company that asked not to be identifiedc for this article (Optimum signs non-disclosurr agreements with many of its customers), makes equipment for the military and uses Optimumk Design for its printed circuity boards.
One of the engineerz at the company, Randy, said that the firm used to make its own butin 2000, it contracted out the work due to budget Randy said he rarely finds problems with the product and that the company is now starting to work more closely with Optimumn Design since it has run threes boards through the entire process. “They admittes ... that they actuallty cost a little bit more than the guy next but we have experienced the high quality fromthem that’x kept us coming back,” he said. And Barbin says that Randy’se attitude is what makes the compan successful. There are a couple of hundred printed-circuit-board companies in the Bay Area, he said.
But by offering the full and keepingquality they’ve been able to find success. “Thde designers we have here are world-class,” he “There’s really no one out therse that can compete withour designers.”