Con Met. Sure Power. Red Dot. GT Development. Index Sensors and Controls. Flexalite. Isspro. Aristo Aire. Williams Controls. Air Weigh. Tempress. Are you familiar with this roster of companies? They are well known to the Class 8 engineering community, and not just on the West Coast. This small but iconic group of suppliers hails from the Pacific Northwest. Think of them as the “craft brews” of the Tier 1 supply base.
It takes some of that pioneer spirit referenced in my prior blog to get a new company started on the West Coast, if they plan to make the heavy duty truck market their primary source of sustenance. Typically the launch of the company is associated with only a single product line and customer. That customer, like the rest of the industry, will go through dramatic business cycles that strain the cash flow of a start-up organization. To survive and even thrive is a testament to innovative technology and savvy business management.
A disclaimer – not all the suppliers listed above are still in business on the West Coast. Several were acquired by larger companies and continue to thrive in their historical locations, including Sure Power and GT Development. Other acquisitions, including Tempress and Aristo Aire, no longer have a business presence locally. Most of the rest are still going strong, steadily growing as they move into new generations of ownership and new areas of technology.
There isn’t time or space to trace the lineage of each organization. Given time, I know my interest would be tracing the personal achievements of the company founders. They were the ones with the vision and the guts to put a second mortgage on the house and do something a little crazy. Guys like Harkey Runnings who founded Red Dot, a company that is still to this day family run and has a tremendous legacy of treating their employees like family. Or Chuck Green and Al Forsythe, the founders of GT Development. A couple of aerospace engineers that were exposed to the truck industry initially as consultants, who built a thriving business around clever little gadgets. Ray Aspiri at Tempress also comes to mind, the classic entrepreneur, willing to take a chance and gamble on a vision. Tempress was a regional leader in large plastic molding of truck interiors, including dashboards. Then there was Richard “Dick” Englund, who purchased an “obsolete” product line from Sunstrand (later Honeywell) and set it up in his garage. The cast-off thermal disc technology, combined with Dick’s innovative manufacturing process, became the cornerstone technology for Index Sensors and Controls.
Each of these organizations was nurtured through tough economic times and went on to develop a nation-wide (in some cases global) customer base. Maybe it didn’t hurt that you could invite senior employees from Mack out to the West Coast to go salmon fishing. Or take Freightliner engineers up into the scenic Cascade mountains to view flame tests of diesel fuel tanks. Even now, bringing an executive out from the Midwest with the promise of sampling Seattle microbrews tends to engender a positive feeling, and while it doesn’t guarantee any business, it doesn’t hurt either.
A common obstacle faced by each of these companies was the perception that business costs might be higher in the Pacific Northwest. Issues include the cost of labor, freight costs, and more recently, costs imposed by local and state government. Turns out that each of these issues could be effectively managed through superior business management. For one thing, the Pacific Rim is a terrific source for immigrant labor. A well designed, easy-to-assemble product can be very efficiently assembled and tested in western Washington or Oregon in a non-union environment. Smaller components don’t incur high shipping costs. As for government costs … it’s an ongoing battle. Isn’t that true everywhere?
Some of the entrepreneurs responsible for the birth and initial success of Index et al are no longer around to tell tales of the good old days. If you find one of them, hold on and don’t let go until you’ve got some nuggets of advice and maybe a funny story or two. We could all use the entertainment, but we need their wisdom even more. Capitalism is a beautiful thing, and there is no safety net for the entrepreneur. Our best chance is to learn from others who have trod the path before us, and here in the Pacific Northwest we’ve got a great group to draw from.
