Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/34599
“We’re doing a lot of high-tech things here. … We’re like another Silicon Valley. I can only see more growth ahead.” — Christopher Sumnicht, SMT president and CEO (at left) self-funded – SMT grew into new areas, such as engineering. A self-described “business guy,” Sumnicht acquired a Manitowoc engineering firm and then later a Canadian engineering firm to create SMT Engineering LLC. Once the company’s engineering services were in place and doing well, SMT moved on to offering remanufacturing services, higher level assembly work, materials management and re-manufacturing services. “We offer all of the services ala carte – a client can choose just our engineering services or use our manufacturing services or they can use them all,” says Paul Vander Maazen, SMT’s vice president of sales and marketing. “We like it when they use them all,” laughs Sumnicht, who went to high school with Vander Maazen in Appleton. About five years ago, SMT finally had in place all the spokes of its wheel and business took off, Sumnicht says. The company saw steady growth, adding clients while current clients began bringing more parts of their product’s lifecycle to SMT. SMT’s leaders were thinking about expanding the facility in 2008 to handle increased capacity when the recession hit. While some companies put off such plans, SMT moved ahead and added 25,000 square feet of manufacturing space and renovated 6,000 square feet of space to better suit the needs of its engineering staff. The project also allowed SMT to more directly incorporate higher level assembly work right into the manufacturing process. “We doubled our manufacturing capacity with the remodel,” Vander Maazen says. Incidentally, this wasn’t the first time the company was faced with the decision of whether to build in economic uncertainty. SMT signed on to be the first tenant in the industrial park at Surface Mount Technology Inc. Year Founded: 1997 Location: 5600 Technology Circle, Grand Chute Number of employees: 135 Ownership: Privately-held by nine shareholders, including President and CEO Christopher Sumnicht Website: www.teamsmt.com 34 | INSIGHT • July 2011 www. insightonbusiness .com