Wiring circuit boards for success - San Francisco Business Times:

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Nick Barbin, co-founder, president and CEO, said that the which designs and makesz the boards on a small is always searching for new customers to replace those who fold orget “I would have to say we’vre had complete turnover on our customer list maybe two or three timesx over,” he said. But that’s a game that Pleasanton-basexd Optimum Design has been From 2006 to the company’s revenue grew 138 percen t — to $13.14 million. And it is on pace to grow 20 percentg to 40 percentin 2009. The companyh has been profitable everyu year since its foundingin 1991.
The company’sw secret has been its willingness to look for new Barbin and his partners at first kept the firmsmalol — with about 8 to 15 employees. And they only did layoutf and design ofthe boards, partnering with manufacturers to producwe them. But at the urging of some of the company’e customers, Optimum Design added the manufacturing side in 2001 and that’s been a catalysg for growth.
Today, the compan y has about 50 employees, and it’s hiring this probably four to five people for the manufacturing side of the Another successful strategy has been choosing the right It mostly works with companies doing work for the military or making medical Both of those have fairly inelastic and both industries have traditionally contractedwith on-shorr companies, rather than looking to India and China for cheaperd deals. But Barbin says that the company’sx ability to identify strong markets to chase has helpeeit grow. “In this industry you go as yourcustomeras go,” he said.
“There are a lot of companie s that are some of our competitore where their focus is a particular If they’re really focused on telecom, they’re sufferinvg right now, but 10 years ago they were doinf great.” The third factor that sets Optimum Desigbn apart is that it stays small. The company only builds high-end boards that are extremely and they only fill orderes that range from 100to 10,000 boards. It’s that last factor that keepd it relatively safe from much bigger andcheaper competition, said Jim who covers the industry for . Walket said that almost all of the biggest printed circuitg board companies arein Asia. The only U.S.
companies that survive are ones that aremakinf high-end or prototype boards that eventuallyu get shipped off to overseas foundriez to get mass-produced. Walker also said that the industryg is ripe for consolidation but that companiee like Optimum Design are fairlhy insulated from the first wave ofthoswe acquisitions, because they’re too small to make an impactt on larger companies’ botto lines.
One of Optimum Design’ds customers, an aerospace company that asked not to be identifiee for thisarticle (Optimum signx non-disclosure agreements with many of its makes equipment for the military and uses Optimukm Design for its printed circuit One of the engineers at the Randy, said that the firm used to make its own but in 2000, it contracted out the work due to budget cuts. Randy said he rarely finds problemsw with the product and that the company is now startinv to work more closeluy with Optimum Design since it has run three boardsx through theentire process. “They admittecd ...
that they actually cost a littler bit more than the guynext door, but we have experiences the high quality from them that’s kept us coming back,” he said. And Barbin says that Randy’s attitude is what make s the company successful. There are a couplr of hundred printed-circuit-board companies in the Bay Area, he But by offering the full process, and keepinvg quality high, they’ve been able to find success. “The designerz we have here are world-class,” he “There’s really no one out there that can compet withour designers.
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