All three of SECO/WARWICK Group’s North American business divisions have each expanded their facilities’ footprint, their staff, and their sales over the last few years. It is worth taking a moment to consider their accomplishments, along with the opportunities, planning, and people that sustained that growth, and how that allows them to better support their partners in thermal processing.
SECO/WARWICK USA., the Group’s North American Thermal, CAB, and Aluminum processing equipment & service division and original anchor in Meadville, Pennsylvania. In the two years since, the company expand local manufacturing capabilities and alliances to pivot faster and more efficiently to the needs of the North American market. This includes adding in-house assembly space currently under contract, as well as forging ties with local and regional contract manufacturers in order to diversify their supply chain and offer greater choice to customers.
In April of 2024 SECO/WARWICK USA opened a sales office in Monterey, Mexico. The Mexico office will also have its own aftermarket segment, taking on aftermarket support for customers throughout Latin-America.
“We’ve always had furnaces and heat treat Partners to support, from Mexico down to Chile. That demand has grown to the point that it is time to open a base of operations dedicated to that market,” says Sławomir Woźniak, SECO/WARWICK Group’s CEO.
SECO/VACUUM, also in Meadville, recognizing that vacuum processes were growing to dominate the heat-treating industry, it made sense to offer those customers more specialized support for the unique demands of vacuum processing.
To meet those demands, and to take advantage of local redevelopment efforts in Meadville, SECO/VACUUM moved into a recently refurbished space, joined shortly thereafter by SECO/WARWICK USA, in a revived Meadville factory space where they both have more room to expand and more convenient opportunity for collaboration between the two business units.
Supported by investment from SECO/WARWICK Group, SECO/VACUUM is in the process of upfitting their new larger space to house their newly reshored manufacturing capacity for select products, beginning with their signature single-chamber vacuum furnace, the Vector, as well as more space for new and aftermarket control panel assembly, and more warehouse space housing their extensive stock of spare parts.
Beyond growing their manufacturing footprint, SECO/VACUUM has also been increasing their staff. New sales manager Eric Gisonno brings extensive experience in thermal processing at both the production level and at the cutting-edge research level. Marc DeBruyne, hired last year, manages process development customer support by performing proof-of-concept trial runs of potential partners’ product samples before they commission a new furnace.
All the planning, investment, and staffing has paid off, garnering an impressive list of new orders, exceeding 60% of their annual sales forecast in just the first quarter alone!
Retech, the Group’s business unit for vacuum melting equipment, has also experienced impressive growth. The company celebrated their 60th anniversary just last summer. Now located in Buffalo, NY under the guidance of Managing Director Earl Good, they have already outgrown their Northland facility and have opened a second Buffalo location, with the last of the major renovations to be completed early this summer with the installation of the largest of their bridge cranes, with a 20 ton capacity and a 45 foot hook clearance.
Funding this expansion in part is a $10 Million investment, made possible due to a subsidized stimulus loan from an award to the parent company, SECO/WARWICK Group, out of the Foreign Expansion Fund 2 FIZ AN managed by PFR TFI, which offers Poland-based companies co-financing of their foreign investment projects through financial instruments tailored to the scale of the project and the capabilities and needs of the Polish investor.
As with the Meadville divisions, the support from SECO/WARWICK Group shows demonstrable returns in the form of record high sales and revenue performance across the Retech product portfolio, along with recent R&D achievements that favorably position Retech to meet growing industry demand for advanced metals for years to come.
The most prominent of these achievements, new advancements in Plasma Gas Atomizing from Retech’s Director of Powder Metals and Product Development, Aamir Abid, PhD, are already enabling the development and production of exciting new materials not possible under previously existing technology, and greatly reducing the cost of high-volume production for high-demand products like titanium powder.
Beyond the SECO/WARWICK Group and the metallurgy community, the wider business community has taken notice as well. Retech collected the Manufacturing Award for Operational Excellence in Western New York. The award recognizes businesses that support the economic health and vitality of the western New York regional community.
In recognition of his team, Earl said “It is really quite amazing that we won such an award, as we have only been doing manufacturing in Buffalo for approximately three years. Major credit to the awesome team at Retech who have worked hard to make this happen. It takes everyone working together to accomplish good things.”
Sławomir Woźniak concludes “Together, our three US divisions accounted for 37% of the SECO/WARWICK Group’s global sales last year. If they can perform like this while under renovation, I can’t wait to see what they can do once all the upfitting is complete. It is a compelling indicator of the value of investing in our people, giving them the tools and facilities that support their success, and by extension supporting the success of our partners in thermal processing.”
