SIDNEY — The year 2017 was another solid year for Electro Controls as sales volume was the second highest in company history.
“We knew going in that we had a significant sales gap to fill because we had a special $1M project on our books the previous year and we have a major OEM partner who is completing a shutdown of one of its business units and that was going to set us back another $750K,” said company President Tim Geise. “However, with the economy humming, we felt we could replace that shortfall with deeper penetration with our existing client base and we were able to achieve that for the most part. Food equipment and automated manufacturing equipment are traditionally strong markets for us and that proved true again in 2017. Wire extrusion equipment was big for us and we saw very good growth with OEM’s in the robotic and material handling and conveyor sectors. These industries seem especially well positioned for aggressive growth into the midterm. We did experience decline in agriculture related equipment this past year, but that industry is very dependent on market prices for producers and farmers and so it goes.”
His report follows:
Sales results in 2017 were slightly below budget. Our biggest challenge was finding the right labor resources in an economy that has such low unemployment. Our material and labor content mix was slightly more on the labor side than we have had in recent years and we operated most of the year with several new positions that we were unable to fill. As a result, we had to walk away from some very good opportunities and that ultimately resulted in our budget miss. While our margins have been in decline for the past few years because of increased global competition, increased government regulations, and increased trade and product compliance requirements, we finished 2017 as expected on the margin side and the decline seems to have leveled off. Our industry price model has changed a bit over the years and our employees have done a fantastic job adapting to this more aggressive cost-price structure by putting real focus on continual improvement activities and figuring out how to work smarter, more efficiently, and more effectively. The Midwest work ethic is second to none and I am very proud of our team at Electro Controls. We finished the year with 92 full time employees and we have 75,000 square feet of operating space.
While we will continue to invest in technology and equipment to enhance our services and increase our efficiencies, our focus for 2018 will be on workforce development. We have a wide range of functional disciplines under one roof and our employee count continues to grow along with our sales volume. We have contracted with an outside employee development firm to conduct multiple training events for all our employees throughout 2018. Our objective is clear, to make a very good staff even better. We want to be ready for growth opportunities and our success will hinge on our people and how we function as a team.
We again are very excited as to what lies ahead for Electro Controls and we feel that we have an effective business strategy in place to provide a value proposition that will result in continued success. We pledge to offer best-in-class solutions for automation systems, control panels, and wire harnesses. We are proud to be serving a wide range of clients and industries across North America from Sidney, Ohio. We want to thank all our employees, clients, suppliers, and the local business community for working with us.
