Next year, Florida Metal Stampings, a prototype-production sheetmetal shop in Largo, FL, will celebrate its 30th year in business. Like many manufacturing companies, it has experienced the good times--rapid growth and full-capacity production in the late 1990s; and the bad times--downsizing, tooth-and-nail fighting and strategic positioning to remain viable in the early part of this century. Today, its second-generation leadership has the fabricator-stamper-metal finisher, etc. poised for continued success, well beyond its 30th anniversary. The overriding philosophy: vertical integration through value-added processes. While it doesn't necessarily see a lot of profitability in providing so much value-added processing, management feels that being as vertically integrated as possible is a necessity to remain competitive.
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