Aerospace Component Manufacturers AbelConn, Photo Etch Merge to Create Major Industry Player
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Companies will offer expanded product lines with continuous improvement of speed and reliability
NEW HOPE, MN & FORT WORTH, TX - Nov. 16, 2010 -- A merger between two aerospace specialty manufacturers - Photo Etch and AbelConn - has created a major player in the industry. Working together, the companies can provide more products and services to their extensive slate of clients, which includes the leaders of the aerospace industry, such as Honeywell, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and the U.S. Department of Defense, among others.
The merger brings together more than 220 employees, including 29 degreed engineers, working from two manufacturing facilities that span 100,000 square feet of production space. With these extensive resources, AbelConn and Photo Etch expect to become the industry leaders in design, quality and on-time delivery of specialty components for the aerospace industry.
Together, Photo Etch and AbelConn will offer a wider array of products, engineering support and customer service. Each company, however, will continue to operate under its own name, at its own facility and with its current leadership team. Wally Olson of AbelConn will serve as chief executive officer of both companies, but Randy Fry will lead Photo Etch as its president.
By bringing together their product portfolios, the companies can design and manufacture back planes, connectors, LED displays and control panels for aircraft cockpits, simulators, flight instrumentation, flight-worthy black boxes and night vision lit display panels.
"For decades, these two companies have served many of the same clients with specialized, high-quality components. Plus, we took similar approaches to high quality, on-time performance and complementary engineering services," Olson said. "By bringing together our product lines, we can offer our customers an incredible range of items and expertise to all of our combined clients - faster and better than ever."
"This is a rare case where a merger is designed to benefit the customer," Fry said. "That's one reason we're so enthusiastic about bringing Photo Etch and AbelConn together. Clients can still deal with the same team they know and rely upon, whether in Texas or Minnesota. However, we will provide them with more expertise and better service than ever before."
About AbelConn
AbelConn, LLC is a low-volume, high-mix provider of high-reliability Class 3 SMT/PTH circuit card assemblies, interconnect products, backplanes, chassis, harnesses and custom-engineered solutions. Founded in 1959, the company features IPC Class 3 Workmanship, as well as Nadcap accreditation in Electronics with optional NASA-STD-8739 compliance. The firm operates from a 50,000-square-foot facility in New Home, Minn. For more information, visit www.abelconn.com.
About Photo Etch
Photo Etch designs and manufactures sophisticated, integrally lighted displays and control panels used in military aircraft, commercial aircraft, flight simulators, ground communications systems and navigation systems. Founded in 1968, the aerospace company manufactures its products in accordance with ISO 9001 and SAE AS9100 quality standards. The firm operates from a 50,000-square-foot facility in Fort Worth, Texas. For more information, visit www.photo-etch.com.
