Bolt Up

Lisa and John Koen, owners of an electronics manufacturing business, are so confident in a local economic rebound they have staked $2.5 million on it.

But the financial side of the bet, big as it is, isn't what worries the Koens, who run Sarasota-based Mictron, a precision electronics machine shop. The real worry, oddly, given the high Gulf Coast unemployment rate, is actually staffing the firm with well-trained employees.

Says John Koen: “The hardest thing right now is to find more people.”

Rolf Kopp, a salesman who has been with Mictron since the 1970s, says the employee situation is dire. “It has gotten to the point where we don't want to buy another machine,” says Kopp, “because we don't have anyone to run it.”

The Koens, who took over the company from Lisa Koen's father, Myron Weinstein, are nonetheless undaunted about their vision for future growth. “The economy is all about risk-reward now,” John Koen says. “We are all in on this. We really believe in our company.”

Mictron, between $3 million and $5 million in annual revenues, has about 25 employees. Its core business is to manufacture components for machines used in the aerospace, automotive and medical industries.

Clients in Sarasota include METI, a human patient simulator firm, for which it makes parts connected to the eye sockets in METI's products. Mictron also makes parts for L3 Aviation Recorders, a firm that manufactures airline flight recorders — black boxes — in Sarasota.

The employee-based expansion plans at Mictron are urgent. John Koen says he wants to hire five employees immediately, and at least another five by the end of the year.

The Koens began their expansion efforts in earnest in April, when they bought a 20,140-square-foot industrial building for $1.9 million. The firm was previously in a 9,500-square-foot facility.

The purchase, financed by Sarasota-based Gateway Bank of Southwest Florida, includes eight vacant lots on 13 acres, a few miles east of Interstate 75 on Fruitville Road. The Koens spent another $500,000 on an extensive renovation of the building, which they bought out of foreclosure from Fifth Third Bank.

The Mictron complex, in the Paleo Park of Commerce, was virtually a shell. The renovation included filling dirt with concrete, inserting loading dock doors and putting in plumbing and lighting.

The Koens, finally, bought an electrical discharge machine right before the firm moved into the building. The machine, which cost at least $150,000, is common in precision electronics facilities.

The electrical discharge machine adds to the large collection of equipment that fills Mictron's new facility. Lisa Koen says the machines, if all bought new, would cost about $10 million.

That's a jolt of a difference to the business Weinstein founded in the 1960s. That company, first in Schenectady, N.Y., and later in Sarasota, built and sold radar-jamming devices for the U.S. military. Weinstein later expanded his business to other electronics parts.

The new electrical discharge machine at Mictron has been a powerful addition. John Koen says the machine is responsible for several new work projects over the last six weeks. “Business has really picked up lately,” says Koen.

Yet the extra work only further compounds the employee shortage issue. “There are very few schools that teach this,” Koen says. “It's precision machinery.”