Businesses detail successes, challenges

Since 2009, Defiance Machine in Columbia Falls has grown tremendously, building high-end bolt actions and other gun components to sell to firearms manufacturers.

Nomad Technologies, founded by two brothers and their college buddies 10 years ago this September, now sells its custom mobile command vehicles and communications solutions around the world.

A collision repair shop in the 1980s and 1990s, Sonju Industrial took a gamble and has grown into a leading aerospace manufacturer, supplying companies like Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

Amid high unemployment and a prolonged economic downturn, a cluster of advanced manufacturing companies has been one of the Flathead Valley’s bright spots.

Four business leaders from four advanced manufacturing companies shared stories about their successes and challenges Tuesday at the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon.

“Today’s program is on driving the innovation agenda, focusing on hot manufacturers that are creating jobs and investment in the valley,” said Joe Unterreiner, president of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce.

BILL MCCLINTOCK, the new general manager of Applied Materials’ Semitool Division, said business has been on an upward trend since 2009, when Applied Materials acquired Semitool.

The company’s employees in Kalispell develop tools and equipment used to make microchips, a booming product with the proliferation of digital devices. “There’s not a cell phone in this room that doesn’t have their chips going through Semitool products,” McClintock said.

With 150 to 170 employees at a machine shop in Evergreen, Applied Materials aims to expand its operations here. But finding capable machinists is one of the biggest challenges.

“The only thing keeping us from pumping out more product is labor and getting more machinists,” McClintock said.

JIM DRAGER is the new general manager of Defiance Machine. It was founded in 2009 as a “ma and pa hobby business” by Glen Harrison and his wife Lisa Lund.

Today, with 43 employees, it sells high-end gun parts to manufacturers in the Flathead Valley and other parts of Montana and the United States, as well as Canada, Australia and South Africa.

“In 2011 we served over 300 unique individual customers, so it’s growing rapidly,” Drager said. The firearms industry is projected to see continued growth of 3 to 4 percent a year, he added.

Defiance Machine, like other companies in Tuesday’s discussion, has benefited from a large pool of available talent because of the economic downturn. But Drager said he doubts the business will be able to find the number of capable workers it needs to double or triple again over the next five years.

To that end, work-force development should be a top priority among businesses, schools and families in the Flathead Valley.

“Even us as manufacturers, we have to reach out and let young people know there are great companies here,” Drager said.

FLATHEAD VALLEY’S remote location is another challenge. Transportation is expensive and it can be hard to recruit people here.

“Logistics is a challenge for us,” said Will Schmautz, president and CEO of Nomad Technologies. “Everything we ship in and ship out takes longer and costs more money. That makes us work a little harder in some of our other areas.”

Jason Sonju, general manager of Sonju Industrial, told an abbreviated story of how his family “put the poker chips in the middle of the table” and turned a collision repair business into a leading aerospace manufacturer.

Transportation issues and related costs are huge for companies like Sonju Industrial that ship raw materials and finished projects on deadline and need to tap advanced and highly technical support services not available locally.

Sonju struggled for years to get connected with companies like Boeing, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin that won’t let a family-owned business in Montana slow or stop their production lines, and therefore demand the highest standards.

All four companies have been recruited to pack up and move somewhere else that promises better profit margins, Sonju said, but are instead rolling up their sleeves, finding solutions and growing here.

“There’s a lot of things that make this place hard to do business, but at the same time, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages,” Sonju said. “There’s something to be said for giving up a few percentage points on your profit to live in a place like this.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.