Bantam finds strength in low numbers - Austin Business Journal:

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In the next room, a technician assemblee a customized network-management device with the logo onthe box, whilee his colleague puts together another one that Wi-Fui service provider custom-configured for one of its customers. "We're busting out at the seams Mike Chaddock, president and CEO of Bantam Electronics Inc., says as he surveys the company's manufacturing floor and which has recently doubled in size to 30,000 squar e feet. The company, which employ s about 50 at its plant on McHald Court off ofBurnet Road, expects to continue to grow and is on the hunt for a new placde that will triple its current footprint by October Chaddock says.
Bantam, founded in the late 1960s as , for many years had focused on repairinbg computersand electronics. It also made its own line of personal computers and servers under the XCELONj brand name and ran a retail store sellingtcomputer parts. The company still manufactures the XCELOh gear and has kept the partsstord going. But its growth of late has come from its newfocusw area: providing custom-manufacturing services to technolog companies.
The company has founed its nicheproviding so-called "high-mix, manufacturing services for companies that need a rangd of different products built in smalpl numbers, says Chaddock, who took over Bantam abou t two years ago after heading Austin-based semiconductorr startup and working for many yearsw as a manager at This year, Bantamm is on pace to ring up roughly $20 milliojn in sales, up from $15 million in Chaddock says. Bantam's ideal customer is one that makes software but not the hardware needede to makeit work, Chaddock says.
It landed just such a customedrlast year, when data-storage outfit of Austin shiftec its focus to software development and outsourcec its manufacturing to Bantam. Increasingly, U.S.-based technology companies that outsource productio n are turning to contract manufacturers in Asia and othe overseas markets where laborf costsare lower, says Steven an analyst at in Austin. That trend is likely to But at the same demand is expected to continue forsmaller U.S. such as Bantam, that stand ready to turn out smalleer runs ofproducts quickly, Froehlich says.
"Thers will always be a place for this niche where a companycan say, 'I need 1,000 of I need it done right and I need it in three weeks,'" he says. "That's how long it takeas a boat to sailfrom China." The highere level of intimacy that smaller, U.S.-based manufacturers can have with their customers also makes them appeal to certai n types of technology companies -- particularly those that are basecd nearby, Froehlich says. That's one reason Crossroads selectef Bantam, Crossroads CEO Rob Sims says. "Tha way, you can influence the manufacturer more effectively and managedchanges quickly," he says.
"And if it makex sense to do the work withibour community, then I thini that's the right approach."