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Reprinted with Permission from The Business Press:
The Business Press, "Die is Cast for Expansion of Tool Maker in Temecula," Randyl Drummer, Real Estate and Retail Section, page 12, published February 8, 1999
-Temecula, California
Growth has prompted Temecula-based Solid State Stamping Inc. to expand into an additional 17,450-square-foot building.
The company, which makes electronic and automotive wire connector pins and sensors, bought the building at 42580 Rio Nedo, and is converting it to additional manufacturing and office space, according to company President Brad Adams.
Solid State Stamping will house its engineering, advanced tool-making and manufacturing operations in the new building. About 20 employees will work at the building when the operations start up there in April. Most of the workers will be transfers from the company's 50,000-square foot main plant about a mile away at 43350 Business Park Drive, Adams said.
The company's headquarters and remaining tool-making and manufacturing will remain at the main building.
The company employs 92 workers, according to Alan Amico, Vice President of Corporate Development. That number should grow to more than 100 by year's end, he said.
"We’re busting at the seams," he said. "This (new building) will give us room for expansion."
Company revenue has grown about 17% from 1996 to $15.58 million last year, Amico said. The company expects another 15% revenue boost this year. And the revenue stream will continue to grow as the company increases its overseas business, he said.
Solid State Stamping specializes in electronic contacts for connector pins used in Delphi Automotive Systems Corp. products. Delphi is a subsidiary of General Motors Corp. Another major customer is the German electronics systems maker Siemens AG.
Reprinted with permission from The Press Enterprise:
The Press Enterprise, "Solid State Stamping Spreads Its Wings," Don McAuliffe, Business Section, Page D, published February 19, 1999
-Temecula, California
A tiny Temecula firm that supplies the auto industry with millions of critical electronic parts is expanding at home while finding a way to keep demanding foreign customers happy.
Solid State Stamping, Inc. hopes the balancing act will allow it to increase sales of its ubiquitous metal contacts at a 15-percent-a-year clip and open new doors in the European market.
"International is a big push for us," said Alan Amico, Vice President of Corporate Development. "It is a growing part of our business."
The company already is a major worldwide supplier to General Motors but it sees additional offshore opportunities. Amico said Solid State is projecting that international sales as a percentage of revenue will more than double this year.
Solid State, which employs about 90, is moving into a new 17,450-square-foot building to give it some badly needed elbow room in Temecula, where it already has a 50,000-square-foot plant.
Parts for the auto makers are hammered out by sophisticated tool and die machines that stamp, shape and crimp pins and contacts from metal wire and ribbon. These highly engineered metal contacts link a car's ever-expanding electrical and sensor systems.
The closely held firm has forged an unusual alliance with a major German firm that will give it easier access to European customers and a new line of products to sell to U.S. customers.
Solid State is partnered with two subsidiaries of William Prym GmbH & Co., a 400-year-old diversified manufacturer of hats and metal products, including zippers and rivets, with annual sales of about $800 million.
Although the partnership took about two years to finalize and required some pushing at the end, it is a "marriage made in heaven" for Solid State, according to Amico.
Without a partner on the Continent, Solid State would have been forced to spend millions to build and equip a facility in Europe to cater to customers such as Siemens, the German electronics firm, and Framatome Connectors International, the connector division of a French nuclear reactor firm.
"It just didn't make any sense," said Amico. It also didn't make any sense for Solid State to continue to supply European customers from Temecula. Overnight delivery costs were eating into already-thin margins as Solid State attempted to comply with the just-in-time inventory strategy most international car makers have adopted.
"It was really a problem," said Amico.
To accommodate European firms that operate with slim inventories and need suppliers nearby to keep assembly lines humming, Solid State instead went searching for a partner that would license its technology.
Solid State officials talked with suppliers and customers to compile a list of potential partners. The company also turned to the Frankfurt office of the California Trade and Commerce Agency for additional names.
Solid State Chief Executive Brad Adams analyzed the list, which was narrowed to about six firms. During a trip to Munich in 1996 for a trade show, Solid Sate officials' met with the firms on the short list and visited their facilities.
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"International is a big push for us. It is a growing part of our business."
Alan Amico, vice president of corporate development
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Prym won out because it had great technology that complimented Solid State's business and a strong sales and marketing presence in Germany, a leading auto-producing country, said Amico.
By early 1997, German executives had visited Solid State and by mid-year everyone agreed that the deal could work.
Despite the early optimism, deal making dragged on into the fall of 1998 with language issues and the logistics of transglobal communication slowing the process.
After a deadline was established, negotiations were re-energized and the partnership agreement was finalized in November.
With sales last year of about $15.6 million, Solid State is projecting a 15 percent revenue increase in 1999 as more automakers turn to electronic and electrical systems in their cars.
About 95 percent of its business comes from the auto business, most of that from General Motors. Telecommunications applications account for about 5 percent of sales.
With long lead times on car designs it may take a few years before the partnership begins paying dividends at Solid State, Amico said.
"It will have some (effect this year) but more in later years," he said.
The alliance will allow Solid State to sell metal click switches developed by the Germans in North America and give it an entree to Prym's impressive list of automotive clients, including Bosch, the large German auto parts company.
In return, the Prym units can sell automotive parts in Europe that use Solid State's proprietary technologies.
Overall it was the "ideal partnership situation," said Mike Marando, spokesman for the state Trade and Commerce Agency.
"From our standpoint, this was a great example of how to market your products in Germany," he said.
Reprinted With Permission From The Californian:
The Californian, "Temecula Firm Forges European Ties," Bradley J. Fikes, Business Section, page C-5, published Wednesday, March 3, 1999
Solid State Stamping takes advantage of deal to grow technology.
TEMECULA, CA – Looking for new markets for its electronic contacts, Solid State Stamping saw fertile ground in Europe, but feared the distance would stretch its resources too thin.
To meet its European customers part way, the company established a manufacturing alliance with two German companies - and in the process gained more than it expected.
The alliance with Inodor Prazionstelle GmbH & Co. and Inovan GmbH. & Co. KG. is extending Solid State Stamping's presence in Europe while giving the company access to more technology in the bargain.
The deal is helping all parties compete more effectively, said Alan J. Amico, Vice President of Corporate Development for the Temecula company. It also demonstrates how a purely American company can find corporate soul mates in foreign countries.
Solid State Stamping makes machined and formed metal tips used to connect electronic components, such as those in automobiles. Founded in 1977 in Orange County, the company moved to Temecula in the mid-1980s and counts Delphi Automotive, a General Motors spin-off, as one of its biggest customers.
Amico said the company took in gross revenues of $15.5 million last year.
The components, used in brake controllers, airbag units and other critically important systems, must work reliably for years, Amico said, so quality control is a top consideration for purchases. Also important is the ability to get the products to the auto plant exactly when needed.
"The automotive industry operates by JIT (just-in-time) manufacturing," Amico said. "If you have every part needed for a vehicle save one, you can't build it."
The American delivery companies are reliable enough for North American auto plants, however, European automakers expressed great concerns."
"They want a relationship with a supplier that is available when needed," he said. "If they have an automotive design issue, they want to go out and meet the engineers."
Uncertain if the expense of opening a European manufacturing plan would be economical, the company decided about two years ago to look for a partner.
"We contacted the California Department of Trade and Commerce, and they did a complete research project for us," Amico said.
Solid State Stamping told the department its criteria and received a list of all European Companies that qualified.
Then came more months of whittling down the list, until six finalists remained.
Amico, who speaks some German, arranged meetings with each of the six at a trade show in Munich in November 1997.
As it turned out, Inovan and Inodor were just as eager to get an American partner as Solid State was to get an ally in Europe.
The German companies, are members of the Prymtec Group of metal-forming companies, Which make metal and wire parts for much the same uses in Europe as Solid State does in North America.
The alliance comes in the form of reciprocal technology licensing agreements. Inodor and Inovan get the right to make and sell electronic contacts for automotive components with Solid State’s technology.
Solid State gets the right to use Inovan technology to make stamped metal parts with complex designs to use as contact elements in switch or relay-type devices, along with other manufacturing technologies.
Solid State hopes to make the alliance a -lasting one, Amico said, and the company is impressed with its partners' long history and expertise in manufacturing.
"Prymtec has a very high level of quality. There's a real mutual respect."
Reprinted With Permission From Metalforming Magazine:
MetalForming Magazine, Volume 33, Number 4, "Solid State Launches Alliance with German Automotive Parts Manufacturer," page 6, published April 1999
Solid State Stamping, Temecula, CA, has launched a strategic alliance with INODOR Prazisionstelle GmbH & Co. of Stolberg, Germany and INOVAN GmbH & Co. KG of Pforzheim, Germany.
Under the Alliance, Solid State assumes exclusive North American rights for manufacture and sale of parts for automotive electronic contact applications based on sophisticated strip metalforming techniques from INOVAN. Conversely, INODOR and INOVAN receive exclusive European rights for manufacture and sale of parts for automotive electronic contact applications based on Solid State’s proprietary technology for its patented two-piece formed male pin terminals and nail head contacts for wire-bond applications, in addition to other technologies.
Reprinted with Permission from Wiring Harness News:
Wiring Harness News, "Solid State Stamping Launches Strategic Alliance," page 93, published July/August 1999
In a unique win-win deal for all concerned, Solid State Stamping has launched a strategic Alliance with INODOR Prazisionstelle GmbH & Co. Of Stolberg, Germany and INOVAN GmbH & Co. KG of Pforzheim, Germany.
Under the alliance, Solid State assumes exclusive North American rights for manufacturing and sale of parts for automotive electronic contact applications based on sophisticated strip metal forming techniques from INOVAN. Conversely, INODOR and INOVAN receive exclusive European rights for rnanufacturing and sale of parts for automotive electronic contact applications based on Solid State's proprietary technology for formed tip male pin terminals and nailhead contacts for wirebond applications, plus other technologies.
Specifically, INOVAN has licensed to Solid State its technology to produce stamped parts with complex geometries for use as contact elements in switch or relay-type devices and to produce bent or rolled spring contacts. Additionally INOVAN's technology to manufacture contact parts with components attached by welding; staking and/or riveting is provided to Solid State, as well as technology to attach electrical or electronic profiles.
The technologies licensed by Solid State to INODOR and INOVAN include special processes to produce pads on contacts for wire bonding. Plus locking and sealing collars on male contacts.
In addition, Solid State's technology for production of formed tips on square and round wire, including .64mm pins is being provided to facilitate smoother tip and lower insertion forces. Solid State is also licensing its patented two-piece male pin terminal made from continuous wire and strip metal for automotive transmission electronic connection applications.
In making the alliance announcement, Solid State President Brad Adams called it an epic marriage within the industry. "These sister companies, INODOR and INVOVAN, bring the highest level of manufacturing expertise and technology to our partnership," he noted. "'Moreover, their sales organization has the ability to serve all of Solid State's existing European customers while ensuring that many additional European companies will come to benefit from Solid State's electronic technologies. And, needless to say," Adams continued, "We are excited over being able to offer North American customers parts based on INOVAN's proprietary processes, including advanced lead frames with attached components and spring contacts for specialized automotive switch and relay applications."
INODOR and INOVAN are members of the Prymtec Group of metal forming technology companies. INODOR is based in Stolberg, Germany, while INOVAN is headquartered in Pforzheim, Germany. INODOR produces high-volume stamped and deep-drawn parts, pine and wire parts on its proprietary equipment for automotive, and other electrical and electronic applications, as well as roll-clad material and micro profiles. The company also provides in-house spot and selective plating.
Prymtec is a wholly owned subsidiary of William Prym GmbH & Co. KG, a diversified.manufacturer of haberdashery and semi-finished and technical metal products, founded in the 16th century.
Founded in 1977, Solid State Stamping manufactures a wide variety of precision made electronic contacts and sensors, including connector pins, lead frames and other precision stamped parts for the automotive, telecommunications and data communications markets.
Solid State places special emphasis on the importance of what it calls "partnership engineering" with customers in order to be able to produce products ready to coincide with customers' ever-changing needs.
For further information contact Solid State Stamping, Inc., PO Box 2620, Temecula, CA 92593-2620. Phone (909) 676-6100 or Fax (909) 676-3484.
