Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Growth Challenges for Manufacturers and How to Overcome Them. I’m your host, Katherine Seymour. This episode is brought to you by MacRAE’S, trusted by North American businesses for over 100 years. As a leader in B2B digital marketing, we help industrial and manufacturing companies struggling with stagnant growth and lead generation. By leveraging advanced AI integration and automation in our SEO and lead generation programs, we help you peer more
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This drives significantly more qualified leads to your website, resulting in stronger lead, low and increased revenue, crucial in today’s highly competitive digital landscape. Learn more at macraes.com. Today I’m joined by Alex Maskalik, Vice President of Sales and Business Development and Creed Monarch a leading precision contract manufacturer. With over 45 years of experience supporting automotive, defense and aerospace,
commercial industries. Creed Monarch is known for its vertical integration approach delivering innovative solutions from prototyping to full scale production all under one roof. Their investment in automation and cutting edge machine technologies has positioned them with a trusted partner for complex high precision components. Alex, it’s great to have you here with us today. Welcome to the show.
Thank
Good morning. Thank you for having me.
Alex, let’s start with your journey. What led you to your current role at Creed Monarch and what was your focus as a VP in business development?
Well, my journey, as my wife says, is a very classic American story. As you might notice, I have an accent. I immigrated from a small country in Eastern Europe, Belarus, and Creed Monarch was my first stop or first opportunity, first job. And I started as just an hourly worker working on a dock, packing parts.
And over time, I transitioned into production management, but my ultimate goal was always to do sales and business development and manufacturing. So while being in a working, I went to school, obtained my MBA in international business, and I was lucky to secure a sales account management role with this company almost 25 years ago. And, uh,
Over time, I worked for different industries. left Creed Monarch for 15 years, lived in UK, lived in California, working from a slightly different industry, oil and gas and filtration. But then I realized that I was invited back to Creed Monarch several years ago and I assume a role of vice president of business development and sales. ⁓
That’s amazing.
Yeah,
so yeah, it’s a classic immigrant story, American dream, ⁓ I’m a good example or example. I wouldn’t say a good example, but I’m an example of that storyline. Back to your last question, the focus is pretty simple. It’s within my title. It’s a business development. But of course, it’s a broad terminology for business development. I think ⁓ for us.
specifically for our company, it’s stability through diversification, ⁓ as you mentioned, right, so our clients represent different industries, firearms, ⁓ government and commercial firearms, oil and gas, automotive, and some industrial segments.
Right.
Creed Monarch has a long-standing reputation in precision manufacturing. How has the company evolved since its founding and how have you continued to build the legacy today?
So as you might have done your search obviously and Creed Monarch has been owned under the same family. Three generations of Creed Monarch, Creed family and we always stayed in New England. We’re one of the largest ⁓ contract manufacturing shops in problem on east coast of the United States. We never, we went through a lot of
Yeah.
cycles and economy and different recession at different scales, but what’s good about Creed and Creed family and I appreciate the opportunity. They never relocated. They never moved facility despite the higher taxes and some challenges and pressure from outside of low-cost countries. And I think that’s just a commitment to the people, Creed.
family truly believe in the US based manufacturing or North American based manufacturing and the value it provides. But also the big part of our success are people and our companies based on probably 30, 40 different flavors of people from all over the world, from Eastern Europe, South America.
⁓ Western Africa, Middle East, ⁓ East Asia, and we created a small communities. We have people working on husbands and wives, kids and parents and friends and families. And they created communities around our company. So it’s definitely loyalty and dedication to our people. And that’s what makes us unique. ⁓
definitely
low turnover of people, a great mix of different backgrounds and experiences that everybody little by little invest in developing our company.
For those less familiar, can you give us a brief overview of what Creed Monarch does and how the types of challenges that you kind of help your customers with?
Okay.
Sure. So, Creed Monarch is a contract manufacturer. We manufacture high-precision components and assemblies. In other words, as you said, some people are not familiar with this type of environment. We don’t design products. We design processes. Our customers design products. They give us blueprints, scope of work, and we develop processes and customize processes and manufacture parts for them.
And yeah, that’s what we do. well, one of our one of your questions was about the challenges and being in the United States close to our customers and most of our customers are have global footprint, but they also have facilities in North America. We do supply.
So really close relationship with your clients then.
Yes.
Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, China. I guess the problems for our customers we solve are parts availability, being healthy, financially healthy and stable. We invest in inventory, we invest in materials. so availability is the big factor. We also help our customers to improve cost and help them to manage their cost within ⁓
Yeah.
⁓ time period. And the last thing that I’ve mentioned, we don’t design products, but we help our customers to improve ⁓ product functionality and fit and also help them to redesign their parts and products to find cost reduction opportunities.
Amazing, The manufacturing sector like automotive and defense comes with intense quality standards and global competition. What are some of the biggest growth challenges that you see for your clients in the industry at large or is it just facing it today?
This is a great question that probably the answer is very unique to the last two, three years of development. And our customers, as you mentioned, represent different industries. And I’d say 80 % of our customers have a US-based footprint. And one of the major challenges these days are economic and geopolitical uncertainties. There is a lot going on in the world from the political perspective, but also from US government policies. what we have seen within the last 18 to 24 months is an increased interest in new projects and onshore projects. But at the same time, we’re not seeing decisions being made, long-term decisions and commitment by clients. And that’s not because they don’t want to. I think they’re all in the waiting period to see how this changes with ⁓ US governments, but also with the global state of economy. ⁓ What changes it will drive. So it’s
Yeah.
I would say we, our clients in the waiting period, they make short-term decisions with a lack of a long-term commitment.
Makes sense. Creedmonix serves a wide range of industries. How do you stay ahead of shifting demands or technology requirements across these diverse industries?
Well, I wish we had several hours, but so I think it’s it’s kind of cliche to say that we reinvest in technology and that’s not just because ⁓ we want to. I think it’s a it’s a market driven need. Products become more complex. If you look at the even the car on the road today and 30 years ago.
Yeah
Yeah.
There is a huge difference in styles and performance and it’s driven by consumers but also implemented by our customers. So the products like fuel injectors, brakes…
even firearms become more more complex and you cannot produce same parts or new parts with or develop parts with same equipment. So you have to reinvest and that’s what we do in equipment and processes. So that’s the big thing. The second thing, ⁓ equipment is nothing without people. You have to invest in your people and this is
for sure.
specifically ⁓ a huge problem these days ⁓ in manufacturing industry and I’m not alone who would tell you that that hiring becomes one of the biggest challenges in production or in manufacturing. These days younger generation have more opportunities than 20-30 years ago. There is a YouTube, is cryptocurrency, NFT and financial management and I hate to say it but manufacturing becomes the secondary choice and this is the most important challenge today is to ensure you invest in people and attract people and find ways to have them stay.
For sure, obviously, Creed Monarch is doing a good job if you have long-term employees and turnover rates are extremely low. So you’re doing a good job there for sure.
Yeah, we have people that… One of the biggest issues for Creek Monarch people are retiring. It’s a good thing. They’ve been with us for 40 to 50 years and for some people that’s the only job they ever had. And by retiring they’ve taken a lot of tribal knowledge and relationships and that’s a good thing. that explains the low turnover.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. With more customers researching vendors online, how do you see the buying journey shift and how does it affect Creed Marnar in adapting sales and marketing approaches?
This is probably one of the weakest side. For 70 years, we didn’t have a need to invest in marketing. And I’m talking about in general, not online marketing. Our business, we never had a marketing branch or outside sales. And our business ⁓ had been based on long-term relationship on repeat customers. ⁓
Right.
Right.
⁓ word-to-mouth advertising. People leave companies and they bring Creed Monarch as a supplier to other companies. But as I said, retirement is not just an issue at Creed Monarch. People retire from other companies and we really have to take the marketing and online presence seriously. So within the last 12 months we start several initiatives. We created company videos. We upgraded our website. We started working with Google SEO ⁓ options and we become more active on LinkedIn. So those are basics and I understand those are still baby steps for Creek Monarch, but we had to start somewhere because ⁓
Yeah.
For sure.
With the access to the internet, we start seeing potential customer prospects reaching out to us from Germany, from Mexico, from India, from China. And I could see within the last six months that our efforts to invest in the digital marketing pay off, even if they are considered kind of a basics.
The challenge of also being a smaller company, I mean, we’re a good size company, we’re about 250 people. We still wearing several hats and, but we need to do better. It’s actually an exciting opportunity for us because we we started from nothing and every single improvement brings a result.
Hi.
is great, really great. Queen Monarch has significant investments in automation and advanced manufacturing. How has innovation shaped your operations and helped you stay competitive?
Well, two sides automation basically helps you to be more efficient and increase your productivity. ⁓ We trying to grab as much knowledge as possible and implement lean principles, lean principles, ⁓ usually introduced by Toyota production system. And, ⁓ we create cell trying to be creative by creating cells.
latest equipment, send people for training and so all this impacts the ⁓just-in-time deliveries and helps us with cost management.
When it comes to winning trust ⁓ for high spec mission critical components, how do you demonstrate your value and differentiate from other suppliers?
A couple things. First of all, today we compete on a global scale. Everybody has, most people have access to the internet and have access and can find suppliers across the world. One of our selling points is our footprint. We have about 200,000 square feet facility with 400 plus equipment with different capabilities and
Bye.
some of them very unique capabilities that gives us opportunity to diversify our ⁓ services. In other words, instead of producing a part looks like an apple, can make it manufacture parts looks like a pineapple or a cherry. So with having 400 ⁓ different type of equipment, work centers give us opportunity to be creative and provide
Makes sense.
wider or broader range of services. The second big point and a selling point that is unique to us, we’ve been always a very stable, financially healthy company, which gives us opportunity to invest in raw materials and wheat and finished goods.
A lot of our customers bring repeat orders and we produce same parts and we have long-term agreement. And what service we provide, we actually invest in material and as you might know, material price fluctuate and availability fluctuate significantly these days due to many reasons. And what we do is we basically, we sign long-term commitment and we invest in material and finished goods and
Great.
constantly.
which helps the customers to release parts within 24 hours. ⁓ Today, to be competitive is not always about pricing. It’s about product availability, about your responsiveness and speed to market. And that’s one of our selling points. We also, with high-value parts, we’re in a good position to dedicate, to create sales and dedicate equipment.
specifically for certain products and our customers and our customers love that. They basically look at us as a production branch of their facility and yeah, that’s the service we provide. It’s not just one time sales. It’s where we have a mutual commitment from two parties, Creed Monarch as a supplier and our customers.
Yeah.
That’s where we can be creative. That’s where we can provide additional volume. And to be honest, most customers are willing to engage in this long term relationships and by having access to their product at a very short lead time.
For sure, for sure. If you could fast track one area of your go to market or innovation strategy, where would you focus? What would be the unlock for your business?
⁓
Speaking of responsiveness, I ⁓ quick changeover and ⁓ adaptive planning capability would be, if I were to choose, that would be my first focus. And I know it’s more on a production side and my responsibility.
focus on sales and business development. ⁓
But I think if we improve and expand our fundamentals of execution side, we wouldn’t need marketing. We would be growing organically with our existing customers and prospects that would appreciate change, quick change over. Unfortunately, I’ve seen a lot of manufacturers, including Creed Mono, that often slow to respond to customer demand. ⁓
Sometimes we do great and sometimes we could do better. There’s always opportunity to do better. And I think for me, that would be our main focus to speed to market, speed to rapid response to customer demand change, which is one of the biggest challenges these days.
For sure, for sure. Looking ahead, what technologies or trends do you think are most ⁓ destructive or transformative in precision manufacturing?
⁓
I would say… ⁓
new material development.
I think vertical integrations, there are a lot of different companies in different segments that do a great job, but they are limited with what they can do within their own capability. And what I see at Creed Monarch, by bringing in on, bringing on new equipment, new capabilities, we expanded our capabilities, we can create processes and cells and equipment under the same roof, under the same umbrella.
Right, right.
Mm-hmm.
We still outsource a lot of outside services like heating and plating and welding. But having all under the same umbrella would help, I think would be, yeah, definitely would move us to the right direction. And the last one kind of related to what I said before, rapid prototyping and rapid production. ⁓
Yeah, which will help speed to market. I see several companies that ⁓ on the West Coast, they look at the new ways to react to customer demand and market demand by creating unique kind of all in one rapid prototyping and manufacturing, including additive manufacturing. And I think they are on something. I think there is a
Yeah.
though it’s a struggle these days, I think that’s one of those, as you said, disruptive trends that we should ⁓ consider.
Very cool. Can you share a recent customer win or product success story that really illustrates the kind of impact Creed Monarch delivers?
Actually, ⁓ working on a project right now, right in the process of launching. So one of our OEM automotive customers that we’ve been working with for last three, four years, they ⁓ source parts across all over the world. China, Germany, Vietnam, and Mexico have facilities across the world.
Ready?
And they have family of parts. And as you might know, East Asia is still one of the best manufacturing, low-cost manufacturing hubs of the world. And we actually won a big project, several million pieces a year project with the company. And we are creating cells. are on
Yeah.
shorn that product and ⁓ briefly or long story short, it proves that we can be competitive, not just Creed Monarch, but the United States and compete against the low cost region suppliers.
Absolutely.
That’s really cool. Finally, for other manufacturers or entrepreneurs in this niche of high spec industries, what advice would you share for navigating complex sales cycles or staying relevant?
Most people have access to knowledge these days. Most people have access to equipment. Companies have access to capital. ⁓
which is different from what happened 20, 30, 40 years ago. I think it’s not just complicated sales cycles, but in general, industry, would say investing in people is the most important part. ⁓ have capacity constraint. It’s not about equipment constraint. It’s about people constraint. And I can’t state enough.
how important to invest in the right people and develop and promote within or hire experts from outside. I know it’s not necessarily a direct answer to your question, but it applies to the complicated manufacturing and sales cycles or just success in manufacturing in general.
Every part goes towards the company, whether it’s the people, the manufacturing or the sales, it’s all one. Definitely understandable. Alex, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your insights on precision manufacturing, automation and staying adaptable in complex industries. Your perspective on Creed Monarch’s commitment to continuous improvement really stood out. And I’m sure our listeners are walking away with great ideas and insights on the industry.
again for being here and for everyone listening. See you on the next episode of Growth Challenges for Manufacturers.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I love sharing this. Yeah, this is what I like to do. This is my passion. This is the Creed Monarch niche and I’d love to meet again.
Thank you so much.
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