AEROSPACE FIRM AVOIDS CRASH VALLEY NICHE MANUFACTURER JUST KEEPS ON TICKING.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

CHATSWORTH - Nicky Ghaemmaghami, a grinning, optimistic man, started off 30 years ago in an industry flush with promise and money.

The Iranian-born, American-trained engineer had put in a few years in the aerospace industry learning to manufacture hydraulic pumps and other niche components to help put warplanes into the sky. At the time, he was 36 years old, knowledgable enough in the industry to realize what to make and sufficiently headstrong to think that he could do it better than anyone else.

In the next three decades, many of his competitors and customers scaled back, left town or simply shut. But today Ghaemmaghami still looks at steady contracts and success. While other manufacturers announce layoffs and cutbacks, he is having trouble finding enough skilled workers to hire.

"I didn't set up with the intention of being rich," he said, surrounded by eagle statues and pictures of presidents in his comfortable office. "That's just a byproduct of doing a good job."

When he began the company, he was smack in the middle of Aerospace Central - with Lockheed employing thousands in Burbank, Rocketdyne just a few miles away in the Santa Susana Pass, electronics giant Litton Industries Inc. in Woodland Hills, engine-maker Marquardt Corp. in Van Nuys and scores of smaller support firms sprinkled across the Valley floor.

But as the Cold War came to an end, the aerospace industry came crashing down. Lockheed fled to Palmdale in the early 1990s, and Marquardt closed not long after. Rocketdyne dramatically scaled back from the days it powered the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. Litton was sold to Northrop Grumman in 2000 and still quietly soldiers on.

Yet busy manufacturing floors at Hydraulics, where men still tote huge wrenches and bolt machines together by hand, look like those of larger, departed companies in their heyday.

"When aerospace dipped down, we thought it would catch us, too, but it never did," said Jeff Riley, vice president and general manager. "It even shocks me sometimes."

Part of this stems from the extremely small niches the company worked its way into, making testing equipment, connection valves and, most unusually, bomb loaders. The Air Force only uses two machines to get payloads onto its bombers. Hydraulics makes nearly every part for both of them.

The MHU-83, which can hoist each variety bomb in the Air Force's arsenal, including nuclear weapons, is not a flashy product. The olive-drab, low-slung tractor retails for around $125,000 each, and Hydraulics makes 10 each month.

Making them and other highly specialized products, including the HCT-20 hydraulic-component testing device, keeps 300 workers employed and brings in an average of $35 million in revenue each year.

Beyond its unusual products, Hydraulics has survived because Ghaemmaghami saw it as more than just a company. He paid more than minimum wage, offered benefits and sponsored holiday parties. Though he made clear that he was in charge, he encouraged workers to speak up with suggestions.

When Riley wanders the production line, he knows junior employees and oldtimers' names.

He bursts into the president's office without knocking and doesn't have to apologize.

"If you go into a successful small manufacturer today, it's like a family," said Bob Holguin, director of business-assistance programs at the Valley Economic Development Center. "Everyone's treated the same, whether it's the guy with the wrench or the guy with the calculator. If they're a close-knit group, they understand each other. That's what it takes to survive today."

Ghaemmaghami is mindful of the fact that his company's continued success is something of an anomaly. He had 60 competitors when he began; now he can count rivals on one hand.

As customers change and the industry shifts, he plans to survive on the same principles that got him through the first 30 years.

"The world is different; the company is not," he said. "We have a culture in this little company, where people believe in it. We're not just stamping things out."

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

Photo:

(color) A worker runs a newly built bomb loader through its p aces at Hydraulics International Inc., celebrating 30 years of business in the Valley and thriving as a manufacturer for the military.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News