Meet the Manufacturers (Chapco)

to a new state of the art 150,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Deep River. Now I'm excited to find out more, not just about the history and their work, but also of that new building and expansion. So Brian, welcome to Meet the Manufacturers.

Thank you very much. Excited to be here.

it's great to have you. Thank you so much. So let's kick it off. Tell me a little bit about the story behind the company's founding and what pivotal moments have kind of shaped you to get to this point just before you embark on this new building.

I was working in Hartford looking for a job, building a house down here, just had a child. He lost his expediter and we decided to work together for a short stint to help each other out. And 26 years later, here I still am, loving being part

You

amazing.

in terms of what we do from a

metal fab standpoint, also like you mentioned, full assembly test and

fulfill as well.

Incredible. What a story. So you're the president, which is the big cheese, so to speak. Tell us a little bit about what does it look like on a day to day? I mean, what is an average day? I know there's no such thing, but what would people be surprised to learn about being the president of CHAPCO?

Right.

I don't know what they'd be surprised to learn. Now is just crazy because we're moving into this new facility. So I tend to be a little entrepreneurial and love the thought of growing and expanding and just doing more for more people. I spend a lot of my day business development, working with customers, also very involved in the move here. So we move from

three small buildings a few miles away to now this much larger building. So where are we putting the people? What upgrades are we making to the building? How is the material going to flow? What does it look like out in the factory floor, you know, working on all of that with the team, and then also getting involved a bit with operations and helping to solve problems. And then, you know, of course, as president and CEO.

just working a lot on culture and employees and just, you know, all becoming one big happy family in this new building, which is interesting because

together under one.

going to touch on culture later. I'm kind of curious, okay, so you've not got a huge distance to move, but logistically, how is that going to work? I mean, I'm just curious, really, from a human standpoint, that I mean, that's a lot of vans, machinery, people, mean, wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It

is. It is. And we've done a lot ourselves. Our team has been amazing. we had a 40,000 square foot assembly building. So we were able to move everything out of there. tons of benches and work and process and finished goods and all the offices. For the larger machines, we're having riggers. And our machine manufacturer actually do some of the commissioning, decommissioning and recommissioning. And then just a lot of work.

done to the building here. We originally thought that we were just going to kind of move in and see what happens. I kind of decided that while it was empty, we should do as much as we could. that in three years, would be remiss if we didn't epoxy all the floors and paint all the walls and do all the cleaning and relight the building and do all that. So when you walk in, it's just a much, much nicer presentation.

Yeah.

I'm excited to see it. Now you are having an open house June 11th, I believe. We're very much looking forward to that. No pressure, but just make sure you're ready for us. We're coming June 11th. The event will be on the website shortly. It's happening.

We are indeed.

I

I know we keep

talking about putting some sort of countdown timer because there's still so much to do we move so much that And kept production going so it's hard to clean while we're doing that So everything is is here in the new building except for a couple machines And now it's just time to start tightening it all up and getting it to run a bit smoother So I think we have 50 days or something like that to the open house. So yeah, we're getting close to crunch time. Yeah, exactly

No pressure, no pressure.

Very much looking forward to it. Now we did mention it earlier about culture and values. You something that comes up quite often in these podcasts are the multi-generational organizations, the family, it feels like working with your family as a literally within an organization. Talk to me a little bit about the culture and values that you have at Chapco.

Yes, we try to walk the line between being a family business with a lot of flexibility and a lot of communication, but also being a larger company with processes that we all have to follow. So I wouldn't say it's been a struggle, but it's something that we keep talking about that we we want to be different than the large companies from a workforce standpoint, we compete against some of large companies in our area.

And our differentiation really has to be culture, how we treat our employees, how we communicate with our employees, what some of those benefits are. Like for instance, in the new building, there's an area for a gym. So we're going to, in the next few weeks, put together a workout area for employees. Outside of that will be a fun play area with a pool table, a ping pong table, some foosball.

where employees could get together and just interact

So we're trying to do those things, but then also from a task standpoint, have those processes in place so we can grow significantly over the next few years and grow with some of the larger OEMs

in the state and in the country. So it is, it's walking that fine line, but we're paying a lot of attention

That's great.

to that. And it's really important to us. We have a lot of employees that have been here.

a long time that have become friends and it's just, you know, part of what I love about running

this business.

Yeah. How fantastic. I love the idea of an onsite gym and table tennis. I'd be all over that. So you came for a short stint. You've stayed for a quarter of a century. Talk about the evolution. I mean, how has manufacturing at Chapco changed during your tenure there? And what's been the hardest change

Right? I know.

to navigate?

I think the customers and over the last few years, last probably decade, we've had a lot of our large customers go elsewhere. We had one customer bring it all in. We had one customer that does everything now in the Philippines. One of our large customers, Mexico, one of our large Puerto Rico. So it's really replacing those customers and just doing a lot of

business development and finding partners who we can grow with and partners that are looking to now onshore, right? Cause there was a big push to move stuff away from Connecticut. And now it seems like there is a pull to bring them back, which, know, we're really, you know, working on. then, from a defense standpoint, we've changed our systems and processes quite a bit to be able to take on defense work. So we're doing a lot for electric boat and, I'm getting a lot more

involved in the,

submarine industrial base, the maritime industrial base. And one of our strategic objectives is just to take on a lot more defense work. So that has significantly changed everything about how CHAPCO works. Because before we were a regional sheet metal job shop working for regional Connecticut companies. So a bit easier back then, but a lot of fun now.

And it's interesting the difference in employee making an electrical box versus making parts for a nuclear submarine or making parts, the housings for a missile defense system or on the commercial side network and infrastructure cooling system, stuff like that, like some neat stuff that's in the news that we're a part of, which is really exciting.

Yeah,

Think from a compelling standpoint, Connecticut supports manufacturing. We've got the chief manufacturing officer, a lot of funding and a lot of help available. We've applied for the DECD funding, some funding through CCAT. We've worked with CONSTEP to help get our ISO certification. And then there's a lot of great OEMs here, right? I mean, there's electric boat, there's Pratt, there's Sikorsky. There's just a really great manufacturing.

ecosystem. And I personally think the quality of life here in Connecticut is just amazing. I work in obviously, Deep River and live in Essex and just this is just an amazing part of the world to live and work in. But obviously, it also makes it difficult because it is not an inexpensive cost region. And when we're competing, you know, with customers up in Buffalo or, or other parts of the country, we've got to

get a little

little bit more creative on how we manufacture parts because the costs are high. Whether it's energy costs, healthcare costs, regulations, from that standpoint, not the easiest place to do business, but we play with the cards we're dealt and do what we can. Exactly, exactly, exactly right. No, exactly right.

Enjoy the view and enjoy the sound. know, thinking about

technology and innovation. So thinking about emerging technologies that are having sort of the biggest real world impact at the moment. How are new technologies kind of meshing with what you're doing at the moment and how are you embracing them?

I think we're so AI, obviously everybody's talking about, we're doing a little bit of AI from a, marketing standpoint and maybe to help address various questions or problems here. and then

also, machine automation. We've got a couple of machines that are fully automated that have really just made the workplace, safer and less risky.

Yep.

We've got a machine, actually two machines that automatic load and unload sheets and sort the parts when they're complete. So no longer are people shaking out parts and working that much with parts that might be sharp and dangerous. The machine is doing that for you. So that's been great. And we're trying to figure out what more menial tasks can be done through automation. And a lot of material handling, I think, because you still need

Yeah, for sure.

you know, the experience and the intelligence of the humans and the users out there to set up the press breaks and engineer the press breaks and make the programs and run the laser machines and stuff like that. So I don't think that will ever be gone, but certainly more of the menial and more dangerous task. looking for some of that machine automation.

I think some of my personal experience with AI, certainly in the last sort of three, four years has been that there's still a lot of hope for humans because we're still very much needed. But it's useful in its right

No, 100%. Right. Yeah. If you use it right,

is. It's very useful. We're not going too crazy with it yet.

Exactly. Workforce, we talked a little bit about obviously doing business in Connecticut. It is not the cheapest state to live, work or run a business. But what are some of the other workforce challenges that you have identified? Are there any talent or skills gaps that you're facing and how are you navigating them?

Yeah, definitely being down in deep river Connecticut, you know, not close to any real city. We struggle a little bit with workforce. So again, we're going to be out soon because we're looking to hire a few people on social media and really talking about culture and what it's like to work here at Chapco. But there's definitely an issue in this area. And we're also competing against some of larger manufacturers.

one in Chester, one in Westbrook, and then also Electric Boat, who is job fairs, looking for thousands and thousands of people and paying them lots and lots of money. So we need to differentiate ourselves, but it's a challenge for sure. And we want to grow and we need to grow in this new building, in some of the marketplaces that we're looking at. So we certainly expect that to be a challenge going forward.

Do you liaise with or work with any of the technical colleges locally to cherry pick, I guess, new talent coming out of education?

We do. We work with a couple of local colleges, as well as some high schools. So if there are high school students that aren't going to go on to four-year education, manufacturing is a great place to go. I think it used to be thought of as this dirty career. if you look at some of, certainly our place and some of our competitors, it is not dirty. is just really nice companies to make a good living.

Absolutely.

Yeah

So we're really trying to push that as well.

it's one of the old stigmas that I think is breaking down. I think we've made a lot of inroads. We've been doing this podcast now for crikey nearly three, four years.

Yes.

And I think in the beginning, it was really about sort of breaking down those barriers and explaining that we are not talking about Victorian workhouses, guys. Some of these places look like operating theaters. mean, they are so high tech and they are so clean and they are so...

Right, right.

They offer an opportunity into a full career and long career where you can evolve and develop your skills and yeah, hopefully the stigma is finally gone about manufacturing.

Right.

For sure, and there's so

much to do in manufacturing, right? I mean, it's everything from running machines to setting up machines to getting into finance, customer service, shop scheduling, maintenance, shipping, receiving. There's just so many things that you can do with a career in manufacturing. And we've had a bunch of people who have started here that were never in manufacturing that maybe started in the front office and then went out to the floor and have just evolved, which is really

Yes.

exciting to see.

It is, and it's a story we hear quite often on the podcast. And also one of the things I think I love about manufacturing is that, you you could, go

to work, you can physically, tangibly see what you have done in your day. You know, you're creating something and you can say, I did that. Do you know what I mean? That's, that is for me, I think one of the, one of the real highlights for people

who like to do things and actually see what they've created. It's a, that's kind of

Yeah. Well, it's interesting

cool.

that

you say that because we're trying to highlight that more and more with the products that we make. Cause a lot of people, right on a, you know, cutting on the laser, they're just cutting a piece of sheet metal and then it goes to bend and they bend it and they don't really know what they're doing. But if we show them that at the end, one of the products that we make is a UV light tower that goes into hospitals, right. And truly saves lives. It's just awesome for the employees to be able to see that, you know, this once dirty piece of aluminum that you laser cut is now

part of the housing for this unit that is being sold into hospitals to save lives. So really neat, yeah.

Yeah.

Incredible, incredible.

It is, that's really good to see the full picture, the whole journey of what they're doing. Thinking about supply chain, obviously we had this little thing called COVID a while back. It was a bit of a hiccup, it a bit of a world hiccup. What lasting lessons did you learn, I guess, about supply chain issues and did you learn anything through the disruption? Was there disruption?

We did.

Yeah, definitely disruption. Yeah, I think it's more about having multiple sources, more about having more partnerships and just getting to know your customers and your vendors better. So when there is something like that, whether it's COVID or something else, you're all working together to solve it. And we try to do that. We really try to partner with our customers and our suppliers to really get to know them.

and let them know us for when there is some issue or large disruption that lasts for years, we're able to continuously work together on it. Yeah, that was.

Yep, those relationships,

they need to be solid. They really do. Yeah. That's a nice take. How important are your environmental and sustainability targets? Are they a big part of your strategic thinking?

They do.

It's no, why do I want to say no? It's not that we have nothing formal. I mean, it's certainly important, but we have no formal program. We relit the whole building. So I think all 150,000 square feet got relit with high energy efficient LED all on motion sensors. We just bought a new energy efficient compressor. everything that we buy new, we're doing everything we can to get energy efficient.

Hahaha

and just be more sustainable, we would have no formal program in process.

It's an action, isn't it, at the end of the day, I suppose. And if you're replacing things with things that helping you achieve that long-term goal, it's progress, not perfection.

Yeah, it is.

Definitely.

It is, and we're working, we have an older, really big array of solar panels up on the roof. So working to try to figure that out with the previous owner, how to get that working to its maximum potential.

Are you going to take it to the new building?

No, it's on the new building. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so it's on the new building and we're just trying to make it more effective. So yeah, we're definitely paying attention to it, but really nothing formal.

It's on the new building, I was going to say. That would be an impressive removal job. I'd love to see that in action.

Yeah, fabulous.

Gotcha. Thinking about customer expectations, obviously you're talking about the difference in the customers and the contracts that you are now trying to get, particularly with the defense thing. How are customer demands changing and how is that shaping how you manufacture or deliver your products?

Mm.

A, I think customers are more demanding, and B, they're harder to get a hold of. So we feel like at the beginning, we really need to give them what the expectations should be instead of process to get them what they want when they need it ahead of time, because it just doesn't seem like an opportunity for that much back and forth during the process. So yeah, a lot of upfront conversations.

And then we just have to do what we say and say what we do and make sure that we get them parts when we say we're going to do it. Because I think customers are probably quicker to make a change and possibly run out of patience.

Gotcha. So less flexibility

and more deliver when you say you're going to deliver.

Yeah, definitely. And our COO that's been here a little over two years has completely changed how we do business in terms of that type of transparency. You know, just using our ERP system to the max and being able to look at every job where it needs to start in what work center process so it can be delivered per what we told the customer and follow it all along the way. So that's been really, really helpful. And, you know, just tracking all the

the KPIs along the way.

Along the way, yeah, fabulous. Thinking about growth and your growth strategy, obviously, you're moving to this whopping great big building, which

is a big one. But where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth? Is there any new markets or is it going to be that real focus on defense moving forward?

yeah.

A big focus on defense, big focus on network and server infrastructure,

and probably robotics as well. And then from an internal CHAPCO standpoint, focusing on some products that we can build. So not only make the sheet metal components, but purchase the other components and do all the assembly tests and actually fulfill for the customer and act as their manufacturing and assembly arm.

So really trying to get more of that. we have a tremendous amount of assembly space here and the infrastructure and the people to do

it. But like you mentioned, also defense, great opportunity to work with the electric boats and the Newport Newses of the world as well as their subs. So it is, it's really exciting.

Yeah, exciting

thinking about the government policy, should we say, or regulatory changes, policy and regulation, it can be a hindrance and it can be a help. What would be the most helpful changes for you as a Connecticut manufacturer right now?

God, it would have to do with health insurance. It's just getting to be so onerous and expensive for us to know everything about, you know, the health insurance. It's just been brutal. I would say we spend a lot of time on that, an inordinate amount of time on it just because we want to do the right thing for our employees. And the prices just seem to go up and up. So we get more and more creative on what we could do.

Yeah.

But yeah, that's been pretty brutal.

It is.

real pinch point. For any

manufacturers in Connecticut who are listening to this, there is actually a Manufacture CT event happening very shortly on exactly this topic, know, regaining some control over escalating healthcare costs within the

industry. So check it out on the website, ManufactureCT.org under events and rock up there. There's some expert panelists who hopefully will be able to lessen the burden a little bit for you.

Ahem.

Last couple of questions from me, if you don't mind. You kind of, I guess, joined the business after not planning to be in the business and then you stuck around. What would your advice be for the next generation? What would you say to young people who are considering a career in manufacturing? Maybe they can't afford college. Maybe they're coming out of high school or tech college.

What would be your advice that you would give them?

would just say that it's a great career and throw out all the thoughts that you have about what manufacturing might be and give it a try. Again, there's so many different things that you can do inside manufacturing. And like you had mentioned earlier, it's just cool to take something and make it and have a product come in and out the door a few weeks later and really make a difference in the world.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the example of the UV light is fantastic. know, it's a very much a tangible

purpose. It's serving, you know, and that small part of cutting the laser, cutting the metal, you've actually just saved a life. That's kind of cool. I think that's a really nice example.

It is, we also build vacuum robotic vending machines. like Dippin' Dots is our largest customer. So anytime you see a vending machine out there in the wild selling ice cream, it's probably ours. And if it's selling Dippin' Dots,

it's definitely ours. So, you know, also neat for employees around the world to see our product at airports, at rest stops, you know, inside Dave and Buster's stuff like that.

It's just, again, neat

to be able to see out there what you make. And when you hear on the news, know, the nuclear submarines are largest deterrent to think that we had a hand in some of those components. It's neat.

Okay, to the future

then, I need you to get your crystal ball out. Okay, I want you to imagine you can predict the future. We're having

For our company, somewhat lofty goals, would like to be doing probably double the revenue that we're doing now and splitting that somewhere 50-50 between defense and commercial. Probably adding

10 or 15 people right now. I just said it out loud, right?

You've committed it. You've made

it real.

Yeah, and that's what we're all working towards and that's why we did this. I say that every time I walk in here still, I get really, really excited about the future and I also have a anxiety

attack. And I guess if I'm nervous and excited about the same thing, maybe we're doing the right thing. But yeah, we're really expecting some significant growth over the next few years. There's a long sales cycle to some of the customers that we're working with and

2030, you and me, we're gonna have another catch up and we're gonna see, A, if the move went well, we're gonna know that actually for the open house on June 11th, but we'll check in we'll see how close to that target you are. I wish you all the luck in the world and thank you so much for your time today and sharing a little bit about Chapco.

That's great. That's for sure.

Absolutely, thank you so much been great talking to you you.