2016 was a year of massive change for our little company!
In January we hired a new Engineering Manager (Nick Depender) to take over the management of the Mechanical Engineering team so Paul could (he thought) focus on sales.
The owner of Select Manufacturing Services called Paul in the spring and said he was ready to sell. Paul worked out a deal with him to buy the assets of his business along with his customer list. In turn these assets were used to spin up a new business unit called Forerunner 3D Printing (F3DP)!
It was kept as a separate business unit from DeWys Engineering to keep a brand name that was specifically related to the business of 3D Printing.
At the same time the building that DE was currently renting space in was sold so it was time to move again. Our long-term landlord bought into an empty old beat up stamping plant on the edge of town and gave us a build to suit deal. Within a month Baker Masonry was putting up walls in the back corner of the old warehouse and concrete started flowing. The buildout would last through the end of the year.
F3DP’s 2 SLA printers were moved in and made operational before the building had lights or heat installed! Old Select Manufacturing customers were still ordering parts and we had to fill these orders even if it meant working under temporary construction lighting!
The Tool Creeper product was launched for sale on Amazon.
We had to take a year off from our normal big Christmas party since we did not even have a building to have it in!