On A Fast Track

Family-owned Janicki Industries has energized the hometown economy and earned respect across the region

Skagit Valley Herald
Levi Pulkkinen

SEDRO-WOOLLEY July 18, 2004 -- Production manager Tim Babcock stands in Janicki Industries' new "war room," a command center full of computer screens and white boards designed to monitor the company's various activities. The room is deceptively quiet. Employees shuffle in and out while Babcock and former Navy Warrant Officer Tony Ransford answer phones and check the screens. It's not a scene Babcock expected when he came to Janicki Industries seven years ago, when it was a start-up company with 20 employees, the brainchild of President Peter Janicki. "Back when it started, Peter was the only project manager," Babcock said. Now, Babcock said, Janicki Industries has 19 project managers and a staff of 355 employees.

Most of Janicki Industries' growth has come in the past two years, when the company's unique technologies began earning the Sedro-Woolley mold-and-tool manufacturer new clients in a new field -- aerospace. The company's sales doubled between 2002 and 2003, and company executives expect it to do so again by the end of this year. To keep pace with its contracts, the company has leased 100,000 square feet of vacant industrial space in Sedro-Woolley, and is looking for more.

While some Sedro-Woolley residents worry the industry may be changing the town's character, much of the Skagit County business community is ecstatic. "Janicki is the most sophisticated manufacturer in Skagit County and one of the most sophisticated in the Northwest," said Don Wick, executive director of the Economic Development Association of Skagit County.

Aerospace takes off

Formerly known as Janicki Machine Design, the company was founded by Peter and John Janicki, two brothers in a family concern operated by themselves and several other third-generation siblings and in-laws. Using automated five-axis milling machines customized by Peter Janicki, the company made a name for itself creating painstakingly accurate molds for the marine industry out of hard foam. In the past few years, the company has moved toward composite technologies and attracted clients in the aerospace industry, including Boeing.

While Janicki Industries has found its way into a variety of niches, business with aerospace giants is driving the company's growth today, said John Janicki, the company's vice president. Contracts with the Boeing Co. and others in the aerospace industry now account for about 70 percent of Janicki Industries' workload, with marine mold construction and other applications accounting for the rest, John Janicki said. He said it's a complete reversal from two years ago, when marine contracts were the company's primary source of revenue. Janicki said the company has been able to parlay each success into more contracts. "We've proven that we have a very advanced technology," he said. "It's solving big problems for some really big companies."

The family-owned company -- run by consensus reached via family meetings held every Monday morning -- has been successful in part because of its small size. Janicki Industries has been willing to take chances on new technologies or untested techniques larger companies are unwilling to, John Janicki said. "It's a lot of engineering, a lot of risk," he said. "We can only do it because we're a small company."

It was Janicki Industries' proficiency in meeting the exacting building standards of the aerospace industry that won the company a large contract with Boeing, said Lori Gunter, a spokesperson for Boeing's 7E7 Dreamliner project. "Like all of our suppliers, Janicki was selected because they are the best suited for this work," she said. "That doesn't mean there aren't others who could do it, but Janicki does it best." Janicki Industries already has produced an enormous drum for Boeing, shipped last week. Gunter said the company is producing more part molds and other tools for the 7E7 program, although she wouldn't release specifics.

In addition to building molds for plane parts and boat hulls, Janicki Industries has been turning out some unusual products, John Janicki said. Using a vacuum-powered resin infusion process, the company built the molds -- or "tools" as he calls them -- for an all-composite bus and a carbon fiber cement mixer. Janicki said he expects the company's technology will take it much further than airplane parts and windmill blades. Using a proprietary resin infusion process to harden carbon fiber cloth into durable panels, he said the company's engineers could build molds for almost any part -- and do it faster and cheaper than the competitors working in steel or aluminum.

Growing Pains

Success has brought big changes to Janicki Industries. Lisa Janicki, the company's treasurer, has been working to stay on top of the company's rapidly growing payroll. As of Thursday, the company had 355 employees, compared to 135 on Aug. 1, 2003. She said it was already evident by the beginning of 2004 that the company was running out of room. "We literally had engineers working around the corners of a conference table because we didn't have space," she said. The company now leases three additional buildings in Sedro-Woolley, but moving hasn't been without its difficulties, she said. Engineers at different work sites had no way of communicating or sharing information electronically, until Janicki Industry employees ran fiber optic cable to connect the State Route 20 site with other operations at the Sunset Business Park and the former Skagit Steel plant.

On June 1, the company opened its "war room," the command center Babcock runs. Modeled on a military maintenance control center, the room is the nerve center for Janicki Industries' operations, Babcock said. The center's walls are covered with large dry-erase boards representing each Janicki Industries building. The boards in turn are covered with magnets denoting different products moving through different buildings. As mundane as it appears, the boards and their sliding magnets amount to a revolution in information management for Janicki Industries. "It was done with guys with clipboards running around with cell phones before (the center) opened," Babcock said.

Janicki Industries has been hiring about 35 new employees a month for the past two years, Babcock said, and doesn't plan to slow down. The jobs generally are good ones, away from the stinky glues and resins that were once so common in the mold-making industry. The company pays well too, with line workers earning an average of $12.28 an hour. Engineers average $58,000 annually. "The phrase is family-wage jobs," EDASC's Wick said. Wick said the technology that Janicki Industries' success is built on is fueling an industrial resurgence in Skagit County. "I had a manufacturer come up to me and say 'Janicki has revolutionized the industry,' " Wick said "They are a cutting edge company...one of the most advanced companies we have in this state."This is a company that is growing. It's going to be very, very significant." Lisa Janicki this year is serving as president of EDASC, an organization whose mission is to attract and keep new industry to Skagit County.

A Reason To Stay

Successes at Janicki Industries and several boat-building companies in Skagit and Island counties have created a demand for workers skilled in composites and resins, said Michele Koci, Skagit Valley College dean of professional and technical training. Koci said the college is preparing to meet that demand with a new composites certificate program. She said students in the program will receive specialized training at the college's Mount Vernon campus in working with composites like those used by Janicki Industries. "We're not just developing skill sets that will be unique to just one company," she said. "They'll be transferable." Wick said adding more trained workers to the county's work force will help draw new employers to the area. "The ability of Skagit County to draw additional quality jobs is related to the trained workers we have in the community," he said.

Janicki Industries has become an important attraction to young people looking for meaningful work in Skagit County, particularly to those from Sedro-Woolley, said Carol McCann, a teacher at Sedro-Woolley High School. McCann said she often takes her students on tours of Janicki Industries' State Route 20 facility. She said many of her students feel there's no future for them in Sedro-Woolley. Seeing a vibrant business that has grown up in their hometown helps change their view. "They see how creative and innovative the Janickis are, but they also see people working," McCann said. "They see kids they used to go to school with, and they see them working. "We need to provide opportunities in our community, so, if our kids want to stay here or if our kids want to go away and come back, we have something for them," she said. "As a community, we have to remember to offer our young people ... a reason to stay. "This is not a dead town. We're really alive and we're exciting and we're growing."

What form that growth should take has become an issue for some in Sedro-Woolley, one that played out during a debate over annexing Janicki Industries and surrounding property into the city. Resident Larry Stiles spoke against Janicki Industries' plans for growth at several Sedro-Woolley City Council meetings. "My problem is that I'm living in a rural setting that is becoming an industrial setting," he said at Wednesday's council meeting. "If I wanted to live next to industry, I would have moved next to industry. I didn't."

Whether in Sedro-Woolley or elsewhere, Janicki Industries will be expanding in the near future. John Janicki said the company is considering adding a fourth building to its main facility on Sedro-Woolley's eastern edge, but it also is looking for developable land. Wick said he's glad to see the company grow. "We are so fortunate to have a pioneer family to grow this company in this community," he said. "The whole family has such interest in the future of this community. It's not just about their business."