Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | M | Metal Center News

Momentum is `made to order'': by specializing in machining aluminum blanks and progressively securing new customers, Dix Metals foresees continued growth.

Article Excerpt
Dix Metals Inc., Huntington Beach, Calif., is basically a pre-machining shop for manufacturers. The company supplies precision "made to order" machine-ready blanks, primarily from aluminum plate and sheet, to machine and mold shops and OEMs in the medical device, aerospace and automotive industries, among others.

The company performs value-added processing on virtually every order. "The least amount we do is precision cutting bar or plate. The big bulk of our business is precision cutting to plus or minus 0.001-inch [tolerance] flat, square and parallel," President Bob Dix explains.

Of its 52 employees, Dix Metals has 30 machinists, nearly all of whom are trained in-house. Another 11 warehouse workers are in support functions: supervisors, planners, quality control, packaging and drivers.

"We run two shifts a day, and right now we're working overtime, too. Our forecast for this year is 10 to 12 percent sales growth," Dix says.

2000 was a boom year for the company, followed by two years of flat sales. However, "we retained positive cash flow and we were able to gain a lot more new customers. Whether business is a little slow or if it's busy, we continue to get new business--at least 250 new customers a year," Dix says. "That momentum hasn't stopped since the 1990s."

Dix Metals sends representatives to five metalworking trade shows per year, and uses other marketing methods such as direct mail, but "referral is by far our biggest source for new business. At least two-thirds of our new customers have been referrals. It's the best way to get business."

The...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!