From the Church to the Firehouse ...
Envelope, Please
About 40 years ago, NCS Envelope Service from Chester, W.Va., was looking for a place for a factory to handle the overflow from its thriving church envelope printing company. It settled on Venice. Today, NCS employs 14 there in peak season. Church collection baskets across the U.S., from tiny storefronts to huge 10,000-member congregations, are filled weekly with NCS envelopes, says Richard Cronin, president of the fourth-generation, family-owned company.
Customized Tumblers
The insulated Tervis Tumbler is made in Osprey and sold in stores such as Beall's. But the 85-employee company's core markets are pro and resort shops and custom orders. It fights imports with quality: "We like to say they're virtually indestructible," says CFO Laura Spencer. Tervis also customizes its products; within the tumbler, it encases patches with the logos of resorts, golf courses, universities and a host of other causes, groups and places. Sales are up 29% through the first half of the year to $6 million, about double the revenue of seven years ago. "We're bursting at the seams," Spencer says.
Protection
Point Blank Body Armor had $30 million in revenue in 1999. In 2003, it had $230 million. The good times are rolling for the Pompano Beach-based maker of body armor for soldiers, federal agents and law officers. "It's not a paycheck. It's saving a life out there," says Chief Operating Officer Sandra Hatfield. Point Blank employs 450 in Pompano and a total of 800 in Florida. It pays production line employees $6.75 to $7 an hour and, after a protracted fight, signed its first union contract in April.
Hmmmm ...
Rick Hubbard, 50, performs up to 200 family-entertainment shows annually for corporations, cities and others. His trademark: Kazoos for audience hum-a-longs. He once had 30,000 playing at an Octoberfest.
In 2001, when his supplier exited kazoo-making, Hubbard bought the assets. He located his Kazoobie in Port Richey for the weather and to be near Ven-Tel Plastics Corp., which injects the plastics into Kazoobie's molds. Kazoobie makes 500,000 kazoos a year, competing against Chinese imports.
He sells most over the internet to diverse customers such as Washington's Kennedy Center, vacation Bible schools and weddings. At $1 each retail, he hasn't purchased a Ferrari, but "I have picked out the color," he says. "Maybe not a Ferrari. Maybe a Cavalier."
Musical Wires
Charlie Daniels, classical violinist Joseph Silverstein and bluegrass star Vassar Clements share this: Their instrument strings were made in Sarasota at the Super-Sensitive Musical String Co.
The company makes strings for the violin, viola, cello and bass and makes Black Diamond guitar strings. Sales at the 50-employee company rose 42% last year, says Jim Cavanaugh, whose family owns the business. Cavanaugh says he expects to make acquisitions as well as develop new products like a high-end hypoallergenic rosin that the company has produced.
Putting Out Fires
In the firetruck market, Pierce Manufacturing's Contender, made in Bradenton, is the value buy. Pierce, based in Wisconsin, brings commercial truck chassis like Navistar, Freightliner and Kenworth to Bradenton, where 250 to 300 employees convert them into firetrucks. It recently added a paint plant there and a refurbishing and service center.
Hot Dogs to Hydraulics ...
Get Yer Red Hots!
Louie Di Raimondo, "America's Hot Dog King," is a tireless promoter. He says his All American Hot Dog Carts Co. in Miami is "the biggest vending cart dealer and manufacturer in the country, if not the world."
Its 20 employees make carts for vending ice cream, peanuts, other snacks and, of course, hot dogs for hawkers, theme parks, hotels and stadiums. It has $3 million in annual revenue. Sheet metal workers make up to $20 per hour. Imports don't worry him. People want American-made hot dog carts, says Di Raimondo, 50.
Conveying a Message
The next time you're in the airport wondering which black bag is yours, give a thought to the conveyor. Seven out of 10 U.S. airports have one made in Tavares.
The Majewski family, whose origins in the business date to Ted Majewski Sr. at the dawn of the jet age, built G-T Conveyor in Tavares in 1987. The 275-employee company has built 400 systems nationally, from 30-foot conveyors to 10-mile-long systems. It completed an expansion last year and hopes to be at $100 million in revenue in 24 months, says Ted Sr.'s son John Majewski.
Going for the Green
In Fort Walton Beach, 92 employees of a company with $15 million in annual revenue continue to manufacture a product now usually made overseas -- golf bags.
Burton Golf, founded in 1907 in Alabama, moved to Florida because it was a right-to-work state. The company makes many of its bags overseas now too, producing 175,000 to 200,000 bags a year for Titleist and others and logo bags for Jack Daniels and John Deere, among others. It's the licensee for the PGA Tour, LPGA and Ryder Cup.
But Burton makes its high-end bags, which carry a lifetime warranty, in Florida. Burton's working to build a niche offering levels of service and customization rivals lack. "We want to preserve what little sewing and needletrade is left in the United States," says operations Vice President Mark Olton.
Chipping Away
Steve Mayberry, Enterprise Florida senior vice president of business retention and recruitment, says, "We make everything from potato chips to microchips here in Florida."
The microchips are made at Agere Systems in Orlando, which produces the equivalent of 10 million a month. Nearly half of the world's computer disk drives have an Orlando-made chip. But its 600 employees are a third of the number employed before the telecom meltdown crushed demand. Allentown, Pa.-based Agere wants out of chip-making and has the plant for sale.
Many companies in the industry now use Asian foundries to make chips to their specifications. Agere hopes to sell to someone who will invest in the Orlando plant to be an Agere supplier. "The economics of the semiconductor industry have changed radically over the last three years," says spokesman Steven Goldsmith.
The potato chips, incidentally, also are made in Orlando -- at a Frito-Lay factory.
Better Tanning Through Chemistry
Chemist Eric Dann started as a product consultant for consumer goods companies and evolved into a manufacturer, doing small runs of 25,000 units for test-marketing. His Formulated Solutions avoids large volume work. "We're what I like to call a brand incubator," says Dann, 30.
Formulated Solutions supplies 250 products, including the solution for Magic Tan's sunless tan. The solution reacts with customers' skin to produce a tan that lasts five to seven days.
Revenue at 27-employee Formulated Solutions has doubled each year to this year's nearly $10 million. "What we look for is niche products where the pennies aren't going to make the difference," Dann says.
Getting a Lift
Few companies match Sarasota machine parts maker Sun Hydraulics -- in product or approach. Sun makes high-performance, screw-in hydraulic cartridge valves used in utility truck lift buckets, scissor lifts, pumps and other devices. Sun focuses on niche products requiring limited runs rather than commodity scale work. It takes a unique approach to manufacturing: The offices lack offices; employees work from hip-high cubicles so they can see one another. It scorns many of the metrics used to evaluate worker productivity. Factory workers let their fellow shift workers know if they're going too slowly. Its flat organization puts much decision-making low in the organization.
In the recession, the company laid off no one so that it could be fully staffed when orders came back. Sales at the publicly traded company, which employs 530 at its Sarasota plants, are up 37% to $47.9 million through the first half of the year. Profit hit $3.95 million, up 249%.
Toilet Paper to Toilets
On a Roll
The Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation says there are 2,693 manufacturing jobs in Putnam County. Georgia-Pacific provides 1,372 of them. At its Palatka plant, 1,234 workers supply the Southeast U.S. with more than a half-million tons of flour and sugar bags and Angel Soft, Quilted Northern and Brawny paper towels, napkins and toilet paper a year.
"We're on plan for 2004, and the forecast is good for the remainder of the year," says Jeremy Alexander, the plant's communications manager.
The plant's annual payroll, including benefits, tops $88 million.
Spicing Things Up
With 33,307 workers, food manufacturing is one of Florida's largest employment sectors. But Joseph "Pepe" Badia's father came to the sector out of necessity. The Cuban immigrant couldn't find other work, so he created a spice line that at first appealed to Latins but has become a crossover hit.
Badia Spices is going national and expanding in the Caribbean. The 122-employee company has $40 million in annual revenue and positions itself as the value spice buy against larger rivals. Entry-level workers earn $8 per hour, and the company's annual payroll tops $4 million, Badia says. "The heart of our business is garlic and pepper."
Flush with Success
Talk about a niche. Boat building and boat accessories are among Florida's strongest manufacturing segments. Within that segment, 42-employee Fort Lauderdale-based Headhunter has a niche of its own: Headhunter generates $7 million in annual revenue making toilets for the luxury yacht and oil rig markets and other marine sectors, including Arctic and Antarctic cruise vessels. The company pays a minimum of $10 per hour.
"We're the sort of niche between 50-foot boats and 250-foot boats," says Mark Mellinger, vice president of the owning Mellinger family. "We can barely keep up."