Wiring circuit boards for success - Houston Business Journal:

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Nick Barbin, co-founder, president and CEO, said that the which designs and makes the boards on a small is always searching for new customers to replace those who fold orget acquired. “I would have to say we’ve had complete turnover on our custome r list maybe two or thresetimes over,” he said. But that’s a game that Pleasanton-based Optimuk Design has been winning. From 2006 to 2008, the company’s revenue grew 138 perceng — to $13.14 million. And it is on pace to grow 20 percent to 40 percentin 2009. The compant has been profitable every year sincd its foundingin 1991.
The company’s secret has been its willingness to look for new Barbin and his partners at first kept the firm small with about 8 to15 employees. And they only did layourt and design ofthe boards, partnering with manufacturers to producee them. But at the urginhg of some of the company’s customers, Optimum Design addedd the manufacturing side in2001 — and that’a been a catalyst for growth. Today, the companyg has about 50 employees, and it’z hiring this year, probably four to five peoplew for the manufacturing side of the Another successful strategy has been choosing theright customers.
It mostly works with companiesz doing work for the military or makingmedical instruments. Both of those have fairl inelastic demand, and both industries have traditionally contractedwith on-shore companies, rathefr than looking to India and Chinza for cheaper deals. But Barbin says that the company’s ability to identify strong markets to chase has helpedxit grow. “In this industry you go as your customers he said. “There are a lot of companies that are some of our competitorx where their focus is aparticulatr industry. If they’re really focusedf on telecom, they’re suffering righgt now, but 10 years ago they were doingy great.
” The third factor that sets Optimum Design apartg is that itstays small. The compangy only builds high-end boards that are extremelyh complicated, and they only fill orders that rangee from 100to 10,000 It’s that last factor that keepz it relatively safe from much bigger and cheapefr competition, said Jim Walker, who covers the industrh for . Walker said that almost all of the biggest printecd circuit board companies are in Theonly U.S. companies that survive are ones that aremakinf high-end or prototype boards that eventually get shipped off to overseasz foundries to get mass-produced.
Walker also said that the industry is ripe for consolidation but that companies like Optimum Design are fairly insulated from the firsg wave ofthose acquisitions, because they’re too small to make an impacr on larger companies’ bottom lines. One of Optimum Design’s customers, an aerospace company that askexd not to be identified for thisarticler (Optimum signs non-disclosure agreements with many of its makes equipment for the militar y and uses Optimum Design for its printed circuity boards. One of the engineers at the company, said that the firm used to make itsown boards, but in it contracted out the work due to budger cuts.
Randy said he rarelh finds problems with the product and that the company is now startint to work more closely with Optimum Design sinc it has run three boardxs through theentire process. “They admitted ... that they actually cost a littlw bit more than the guy next but we have experienced the high quality fromthem that’sz kept us coming back,” he And Barbin says that Randy’s attitude is what makeas the company successful. There are a couple of hundred printed-circuit-board companiex in the Bay Area, he said. But by offering the full and keepingquality high, they’ve been able to find “The designers we have here are he said.
“There’s really no one out therr that can compete withour