A planned expansion that will double the size of Signicast Investment Castings is proof that American manufacturers can compete with anyone in the world, including low-cost producers in Asia, a company executive says.

“In our world, there’s two ways of competing on a global basis: You can move to a low-cost country like China or India, or you invest in technology and capital and you compete (here),” said Todd McDonald, vice president of sales for Signicast. “That’s what we’ve chosen to do. We make everything right here in Wisconsin. A lot of our competitors have some if not all of their product offshore.

“We’re still the global leaders and continue to grow very fast with our business model.”  The company manufactures metal castings for industries ranging from recreational vehicles to power tools to valves for fluid technology uses.

Signicast is built around investment casting, one of the oldest forms of metalworking in the world. The company took the process and added automation, robotics and proprietary computer systems. Those additions resulted in lower costs and faster lead times.

“We believe very strongly in American manufacturing,” McDonald said. “We’ve done the things that are necessary to compete in terms of lead time and quality and total cost in order to compete with offshore. We’ve made the necessary investments to do so. Not everybody in our industry has done that.”  Signicast is owned by the Pritzker Group, a private equity and venture capital firm with offices in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Signicast employs 650 people – 537 in Hartford and 113 in Brown Deer. It generates $140 million in annual revenue and has hundreds of customers across industries.  It is planning to increase those numbers.

On Friday, Signicast was set to close on the purchase of 52 acres for a major planned expansion in Hartford. The land is just north of Signicast’s facilities in the Dodge Industrial Park. The land is located in Washington and Dodge counties.

The company plans to eventually add 576,000 square feet and 500 employees with the expansion. That would double its size.

Strong work force

“This is a big deal certainly for the City of Hartford but also for the counties, Dodge and Washington, the M-7 region and the state as far as a major economic development project,” said Patrice Hoeschele, CEO of the Hartford Area Economic Development Corp.

“If all goes as planned, this would be the largest project in Hartford in 20 years,” she added. Signicast chose to expand in Hartford, not just because of proximity to its current facilities.

“We’ve really been passionate about making sure that we expand here, that we add jobs here,” McDonald said. “One of the reasons that we want to be here is we really believe this community has a strong work force – the attitude and the work ethic.”

Seeking skilled workers

The company is hiring. It employs people ranging from skilled trades workers to engineers to salespeople.  Finding skilled labor is a challenge across manufacturing and Signicast is no exception. Still, “We feel the environment here really attracts people,” McDonald said. “We wouldn’t be doing this if we thought it was going to be a problem.”

Having the company expand in southern Wisconsin is significant for the region’s economy, said Christian Tscheschlok, executive director of Economic Development/Washington County, a public-private business development partnership.  “They are embedded in the supply chains of some of the largest companies in the world,” Tscheschlok said of Signicast. “A company like this has choices. They are a growth company. They are going to invest where they have some of the greatest opportunity to find success for their business plan.  “They have a strong track record of success in their past projections,” he added. “Their past demonstrates their ability to achieve what they set out to do.”  “The best spokespeople are the companies who are growing here and successful here. That’s one of the reasons why Signicast is such an important project for us.”

Kurt Van Dyke, an industrial real estate broker with Cassidy Turley Barry of Milwaukee said the economic recovery may signal increased interest in new industrial buildings.  “Just before the recession, we had companies looking for large sites, and we couldn’t find any,” Van Dyke said. “So, I could see that coming back.”

Industrial space in Washington County, where most of Hartford is located – the city’s Dodge Industrial Park is in Dodge County – is relatively tight.  The industrial vacancy rate for Washington County was 5.9% during the first quarter, compared with 8.2% for southeastern Wisconsin, according to a recent report from the Commercial Association of Realtors-Wisconsin and Xceligent.

Signicast was talking about the expansion before a recession hit the U.S. economy.

Plan put on pause

The company has moved well beyond the downturn, McDonald said. That reflects the trend of manufacturing leading the U.S. economy back from recession.  “We’ve began talking about this in 2008 and then the downturn hit and it was put on pause,” McDonald said. “2010 began to pick up, and 2011 has really been a cannon.”

Signicast will seek to break ground shortly on the expansion, with buildings being ready for equipment to be installed this winter.  Now it’s a matter of execution, McDonald said. “If we continue to perform and do the things we need to do, I see no issue with meeting those goals.”

Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.