TCI expanding, hiring more employees
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| Some employees of TCI Manufacturing and Equipment Sales in Walnut stand by the company's expanded facilities. They are Jack Ackerman, sales manager; Carolyn Thompson, office manager; Mike Maynard, president; and Will Shane, engineering manager. (BCR photo/Lyle Ganther) |
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WALNUT — TCI Manufacturing and Equipment Sales in Walnut will be hiring more employees after expanding the size of its business on Route 92, west of Walnut.
Mike Maynard, president of TCI, said the company was started in 2000 by a small group of shareholders to be a small conveyor manufacturing company that also designs and builds products for its customers — ranging from sand and gravel businesses to steel mills to quarries.
In 2007, the company built a 26,000-square-foot building over the top of the existing manufacturing building in order to keep the manufacturing operations going on during construction. Once the larger building was finished, the smaller one inside it was demolished.
Now the company is building a 32,000-square-foot addition to the 2007 building, along with a 4,000-square-foot office building on the west end of the business.
The company’s larger facilities were needed to expand and increase production for products shipped primarily all over the United States. Small amounts of products have been shipped overseas to Egypt, Russia, Canada and India, said Maynard.
The 32,000-square-foot facility should be ready by the end of January, along with the office facility holding engineers, sales and marketing, and administration.
“We have had to turn away business every year,” Maynard said as to the reason the company is expanding its manufacturing facilities five years after the initial 26,000-square-foot expansion. “We still turn away work after the first expansion and decided in 2011 to expand again. Due to the economy, we decided to purchase CNC machinery to increase production. We were still turning away business in 2012, since we didn’t have enough floor space; so we decided to expand despite the national economy woes.”
With the expansion, Maynard expects to hire more employees to the company’s workforce.
“We have already increased by 10 percent and expect to increase another 10 percent in the next 60 days,” he said. TCI currently employs 50 people, but can employ up to 80 people with the latest expansion.
Maynard said much of the company’s success is due to the quality people they hire.
“We have a great sales force and a great engineering group. We have great production managers, and every group we have are very aggressive. We are constantly taking on new products to design and build,” he said.
“Every business’ success is based on its employees. If you get the right people, all will do well,” he added.
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