Boose Aluminum purchases two neighboring metalcasters, increases revenues by 30%.

Boose Aluminum Foundry Co., Inc., Reamstown, Pa., has increased its yearly revenues by 30% since last August, but rather than reconfiguring its existing plant, the aluminum job shop expanded outward, starting a new, wholly-owned company with the assets of two nearby metalcasters.

"We looked at replacing our automatic molding machine in house, but we understood that Cornwall Aluminum Foundry was for sale," said President Roger Boose. "Instead of purchasing more capacity here, we purchased it to expand."

The addition of Cornwall Aluminum Foundry, located about 20 miles from Boose Aluminum in Cornwall, Pa., brought the company increased flexibility, with three automatic molding lines across 57,000 sq. ft. of space. Three matchplate molding lines, a 14 x 19, 30 x 32 and 20 x 24, will continue to operate at the Cornwall plant. Together, the two companies will serve aluminum parts primarily to commercial and military markets, as well as medical, electrical, tooling, architectural lighting and automotive aftermarket customers. The upper management of Boose Aluminum will operate the Cornwall plant under the name of Boose at Cornwall Inc.

"We retained the majority of the Cornwall employees," Boose said. "Upper management was released, but personnel from mid-management down remained on board."

At about the same time (Cornwall was bought on August 25, 2006), Boose Aluminum purchased the assets of Cast Technologies, Brickerville, Pa. However, Boose Aluminum decided not to retain the small firm's manufacturing facility, keeping instead its customer list and some spare parts. Boose Aluminum also offered Cast Technologies' employees jobs at the Boose Aluminum location in Reamstown, Pa.

Prior to the acquisitions, Boose Aluminum, which has nearly 100,000 sq. ft. of facility space, shipped almost 3 million lbs./year, and Cornwall was at 1.6 million lbs./year. But, Boose said that Boose at Cornwall would increase to about 2 million lbs., taking on some of the work that was produced at the original plant. The work that steins from Cast Technologies' customer list has been picked up at Boose Aluminum. Boose Aluminum also contributes value added services previously unavailable at Cornwall, including non-destructive testing.

At the time of the acquisition, Cornwall was working only one shift, but Boose said they have expanded to a full day and are looking into working a second shift to accommodate the increase in production. "We immediately started with some overtime," Boose said, "they shut down the day of the sale and started back up the next Monday."

Since the purchases, Boose Aluminum has gone back to thinking about expanding its existing space, considering a cope and drag line. Having added a second shift to accommodate existing business, which has shown a growth rate in excess of 14% per year since 2003, sales manager Jon Giesige believes that even more customers are on the horizon.