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Contract manufacturing company experiences accelerated growth
By Anne Straub

Expect growth to be flat or down at MC Assembly this year – and that’s just how President Thomas Wienckoski wants it.

“We’ve grown so fast – almost too fast,” said Wienckoski, who heads the contract manufacturer based in Palm Bay.

Wienckoski helped start the company as a test facility in 1984 and has nurtured to its current status as Palm Bay’s second-largest manufacturer, after Harris Corp. The company employs 1,500 people, including 250 at a plant in Mexico, and posted $233 million in revenue last year.

Another reason for MC Assembly to pause and catch its corporate breath: The company completed a consolidation last year that moved its operations from four different locations to its 240,000-square-foot facility, the former Storagetek/Documation site on Kirby Avenue in Palm Bay. The approximately $6 million investment in renovating and connecting the existing buildings should pay off in increased efficiencies. “The logistics is really a big help,” Wienckoski said, noting that product no longer needs to be moved between different manufacturing sites.

His current position is not likely where Wienckoski thought he was headed when he left his native New Jersey to study oceanography at Florida Institute of Technology at 17. He waited tables to pay for tuition and began noticing that people graduating in his major were having trouble getting jobs. The observation fueled his disillusionment with his direction.

As a student, Wienckoski made a great entrepreneur. “I was never into school. I was always wanting to do something on my own,” he said. He quit school, but not before meeting his future wife, who was studying computer science.

Wienckoski started selling printed circuit boards for a company that also outsourced circuit board testing to companies throughout the county. He worked with the founder of that company to start MC Assembly, offering testing services.
In the mid-1980s, testing equipment was expensive and outsourcing made sense for most companies. But as the cost of the equipment fell, more companies began outfitting themselves to do their own testing, and MC Assembly had to find another revenue source. It sold its testing business and turned to contract manufacturing.

Contract manufacturers make products for companies who use the components in their finished product or simply brand them and sell them as their own. Many prime users of the service are telecom firms – a trend that took a toll on contract manufacturers during the telecom bust of 2000.

MC Assembly made it through the slump largely because of its diverse client base. In addition to customers in telecommunications, it serves companies that make medical products and high-end consumer audio devices, such as keypads to control home automation. Gaming was a key sector that kept the company strong.

The company’s growth accelerated in 2001 as its existing customers grew and it added more. At one point, MC Assembly was hiring 20 to 25 people a week.
A sizeable chunk of the company’s current business is in finished assemblies, or putting together the entire product and delivering it to the end customer. The service accounts for 25 percent to 30 percent of the company’s business.
“For people who want to get out of manufacturing, that’s the next logical step,” Wienckoski said.

“We’re thrilled to have them,” said Chris Norton, economic development director for the city of Palm Bay. “They brought 900 employees with them, and added another 300 or 400 good-paying jobs” since, he said.

Last year, jobs added included a chief operating officer, vice president of engineering, vice president of sales and a number of engineers. Wienckoski is working on the operations side of the business, to catch it up with the recent explosion of growth. The company plans to keep growth level until the fourth quarter of the year, when it will ramp up again and aim to continue growing into 2007.

“You have to surround yourself with good people,” Wienckoski said. Though he never received academic business training, he thinks he has good business sense. “The best learning tool I’ve ever come across is experience,” said Wienckoski, 45. For his employees, he looks for experience and a dose of humility. He’s seen some workers with good skills marred by arrogance. “You have to be willing to learn and willing to listen,” he said.

He sees his own skills as a commodity to be shared. Wienckoski serves on the board of directors for Resurrection Ranch, an organization that helps people in crisis situations, and for the Daily Bread soup kitchen. Both groups operate in Melbourne.

The causes aim to help people, and that’s important to Wienckoski and his wife of 22 years, Charlotte. “Many are victims of circumstance,” he said of the homeless, a group both organizations serve. Some are suffering because of their own mistakes, and some for the mistakes of others. “It’s very, very hard to get out of,” Wienckoski said.

A job is a key component to rejoining society, and Wienckoski has hired former residents of Resurrection Ranch to give them a start. “From there, it’s up to them,” he said.

Wienckoski was instrumental in fundraising and heading the financial committee of Resurrection Ranch, said Bill Petrik, director. “I chalk it up to his very public faith in God,” he said.

Wienckoski, a member of Ascension Catholic Church in Melbourne, describes himself as not overly religious. “We’re in a position to help people,” he said. “You should take advantage of the skills you have and give back.”

He’s put his golf hobby largely on hold to spend time with his family while their children are young. “We love to go on vacation,” he said, and the Bahamas are a favorite spot for the boat-loving crew. He and Charlotte have three children: Alexandra just graduated from Melbourne Central Catholic and has been accepted to Boston College; Thomas recently finished his sophomore year at MCC and Gabrielle completed fourth grade at Ascension.

“I feel lucky,” Wienckoski said.