As you may be aware, on May 4, 2015, RESCO announced its merger with J-Rad Technical Services. J-Rad is a thirty-year-old manufacturer of cable harnesses and assemblies based in Spartanburg, South Carolina. With the addition of J-Rad to the RESCO family, we welcome new customers, an outstanding staff and expanded capabilities. We believe it is these expanded capabilities that will have the most significant long-term benefit to all of our customers.
Over the last seven years, RESCO has acquired the operations of three contract manufacturing operations. First came Sherman Assembly Systems in 2008. That was followed by the acquisition of MorrCo Enterprises in 2011, and now J-Rad in 2015. With each of these acquisitions, we expanded our ability to serve our customers. Sherman added the ability to manufacture larger, more complex harnesses. MorrCo brought RESCO the capabilities to build semi-rigid RF assemblies and produce precision magnet windings. The MorrCo acquisition also gave RESCO a highly-efficient manufacturing facility in Mexico. Now J-Rad will allow RESCO to expand its ability to manufacturer heavy gauge power cables and assemblies.
Among RESCO’s core values are “Customers First” and “Growth.” RESCO’s acquisition strategy helps keep us true to these values. While growth is important, we have no desire to grow just for growth’s sake. Our growth, whether organic, finding and winning new business through our sales efforts, or acquisitive, like our purchase of J-Rad, always has a purpose. That purpose is to become a better partner to our customers. When contemplating each of the three acquisitions that we have made in recent years, it was our desire to expand our capabilities, thereby making us a better, more complete supplier.
Over the coming months, we will fully integrate J-Rad into RESCO. Most of this activity should be transparent to our customers and suppliers, but a few things, like changing the name to RESCO Electronics, will not. We are committed to keeping the J-Rad customers and suppliers informed throughout this process. What will not change are the primary contacts with whom the J-Rad customers have been accustomed to working nor will the J-Rad commitment to customer service be lost. Once the integration is complete, J-Rad customers will have access to the full capabilities of RESCO and RESCO customers will have several new manufacturing services from which to choose.
I can assure you that RESCO, now in its ninth decade of operation, has more growing to do. This year we plan to add capabilities to manufacture flat flex cable assemblies. We are also making substantial investments in equipment to more highly automate existing production processes. Additionally, we are embarking on a lean manufacturing initiative. Since the company’s founding, we have always been about continual improvement and equipment investments and lean manufacturing will just be the latest chapter in our continual improvement book. As you can tell, at RESCO we are all about getting better. And generally speaking, we feel that one of the best ways that we can get better for our customers is to continue to invest and continue to grow.
About the Author
David Copenhaver is President of RESCO Electronics, a Baltimore based manufacturer electronic assemblies and value added reseller of auto ID equipment to original equipment manufacturers. Before joining RESCO in 2003, David was the Senior Vice President of Operations and member of the Board of Directors for US Office Products, a publicly traded distributor of office products that is now part of Staples.
Beginning in 1989, David co-owned and managed The Smith-Wilson Co., an Orlando based distributor of office products that was sold to US Office Products in 1996.
David has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration both from the University of Virginia. He is married and lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife and three sons.