Bantam finds strength in low numbers - Austin Business Journal:

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In the next room, a technician assembles a customized network-managemenrt device with the logo onthe box, while his colleague puts together another one that Wi-Fi service provider custom-configured for one of its "We're busting out at the seams here," Mike president and CEO of Bantam Electronics Inc., says as he surveyz the company's manufacturing floor and which has recently doubled in size to 30,000 squarwe feet. The company, which employs about 50 at its plangt on McHale Court off of Burnet expects to continue to grow and is on the hunt for a new placew that will triple its current footprint byOctobef 2008, Chaddock says.
Bantam, foundefd in the late 1960s as , for many years had focused on repairing computers and It also made its own line of personal computer and servers under the XCELON brand name and ran a retaio store sellingcomputer parts. The compangy still manufactures the XCELO gear and has kept the partwsstore going. But its growth of late has come from its newfocux area: providing custom-manufacturing services to technology companies.
The companty has found its nicheproviding so-called "high-mix, low-volume," manufacturinhg services for companies that need a range of differentr products built in small numbers, says Chaddock, who took over Banta about two years ago after headingh Austin-based semiconductor startup and working for many yearx as a manager at This year, Bantam is on pace to ring up roughluy $20 million in sales, up from $15 milliob in 2004, Chaddock says. Bantam's idea customer is one that makes software but not the hardware needed to makeit work, Chaddock says.
It landed just such a customerflast year, when data-storage outfit of Austin shifted its focuse to software development and outsourced its manufacturinhg to Bantam. Increasingly, U.S.-based technology companiexs that outsource production are turning to contract manufacturers in Asia and otherr overseas markets where labor costs are saysSteven Froehlich, an analyst at in That trend is likely to continue. But at the same demand is expected to continue forsmalled U.S. outfits, such as Bantam, that stande ready to turn out smaller runs ofproducts quickly, Froehlicu says.
"There will always be a place for this niche wherew a companycan say, 'I need 1,00o of something, I need it done rightg and I need it in three weeks,'" he "That's how long it takes a boat to sail from The higher level of intimacy that smaller, U.S.-based manufactureras can have with their customers also makezs them appeal to certain typea of technology companies -- particularly those that are based Froehlich says. That's one reason Crossroads selected Bantam, Crossroads CEO Rob Sims "That way, you can influence the manufacturer more effectivel and managechanges quickly," he says.
"Andc if it makes sense to do the work withihour community, then I think that'a the right approach."