CASE STUDY

February 2012

Astro Manufacturing & Design, Inc. Soars in New Markets to Drive Double Digit Growth
Custom Fabricator and Machining Company Expands Customer Base with Custom Web Strategy from Thomas Industrial Network
About Astro Manufacturing & Design, Inc. Based outside of Cleveland, in Eastlake, Ohio, Astro Manufacturing & Design, Inc. is a custom machining and fabricating company, where every new business request presents a different opportunity to prove its capabilities. The company provides CNC and manual machining, sheet metal fabricating, rapid prototyping, vacuum forming, coating, and assembly services along with product design and development. Astros customers span industries, from medical to military and aerospace to automotive tooling and equipment. Many of their customers are ranked in the Fortune 500, including Parker Hannifin and Lockheed Martin. Their aerospace and defense applications run the gamut, including manufacturing components for aircraft, missiles and torpedoes as well as parts destined for the International Space Station. Additionally, Astro caters to the medical device market, with its successful division, where they manufacture a range of orthopedic implants used to treat broken bones. In addition, Astro makes whole components that go into CT scanners and MRI machines for leading global manufacturers like Philips Healthcare. The company also builds and assembles deployable mobile CT and X-ray imaging systems for use by the United States military in combat zones, and provides surgical simulators for use in training medical professionals. Astro Manufacturing & Design is a second-generation family owned business. It was founded in 1977 by Mike Watts Sr. and colleagues who purchased machinery from another company that had closed. Today, the company is majority owned by Mr. Watts son, Mike Watts, Jr. Over the years, Astro has expanded to a 142,000 square foot headquarters that includes five divisions across Ohio, each with its own plant. The business generates about $45 million in sales each year, and has 270 employees, including 10 dedicated sales reps.

Challenge: More than double the companys size in the next five years Last year, Astros management team set an ambitious goal - to reach $100 million in revenue over the next five years. In order to succeed, Astro would have to build new opportunities outside of its traditional Rust Belt territory. To succeed, they knew they couldnt do it alone. Fundamental to how Astro builds its business, the company seeks orders to build new products or prototypes, with the intent to develop those projects into long-term customers. To meet their new goal, Astro needed to be more visible within the engineering community, so they would be better known and top-of-mind for their key audience of product design prospects. Yet as a custom manufacturer, Astro doesnt have a standard line of ready-to-order products to view in a conventional catalog. Instead, the company sought a way to demonstrate their capabilities in a manner that would engage new prospects, leading them to submit a request for quote (RFQ). That all important RFQ triggers a development process that can take weeks or even months to develop. Astro needed a more efficient system, cutting back on unqualified inquiries and zeroing in on developing more relevant leads to their website. Then, they would need a process to convert those leads into customers. We sell manufacturing services and have a lot to prove at the outset of a new business relationship, said Astros Vice President of Business Development Rich Peterson. How can we get the customer to come to us? How can we get them to open the door? Those were our critical questions. Solution: A complete web strategy that works like an always-on sales team From their previous work with Thomas Industrial Network, Astro knew the company had the expertise to help custom manufacturers to grow. It was natural for Astro to turn to them to build a complete web solution that would provide a roadmap for success. Astro worked closely with Thomas Industrial Networks staff of engineers and Internet experts, professional peers who understand how Astros target customers search for suppliers. Together they built a new website that would give prospects confidence that Astro could fulfill their orders. It includes a portfolio of Astros past work and highlights their various technologies. For instance, the website now showcases a project where Astro manufactured an alternate heart pump from a single piece of titanium. The online example explains the manufacturing process, including five-axis machining. This is the sort of specificity new prospects want to see when evaluating Astro for a potential project. The 11 other portfolio examples show a variety of Astro projects, like building internal missile component housing and vacuum-formed plastic parts for cars. To help drive more qualified prospects to see Astros website, they also secured top ranked positions on ThomasNet.com, the industry-leading online sourcing and selection platform for industrial products and services. The sourcing agents and engineers that make up Astros customer base regularly turn there when seeking a supplier.

To best reach them, Astro appears at the top of searches for key phrases like Medical Component Design and Manufacturing Suppliers or ITAR (International Traffic and Arms Regulations) manufacturing. To help complete Astros new web strategy, Thomas Industrial Network also developed an SEO (search engine optimization) program. Astros website is now optimized with these same keywords and phrases to organically help Astro rise to the top of general search engine results. We now have a great opportunity to showcase what were capable of delivering to our prospects, Mr. Peterson said. These web strategies working together are one hundred times more successful than making outbound cold calls, and are exactly what we needed to create more new business opportunities. Results: A diversified base of new RFQs drives double-digit revenue growth Since deploying this web strategy, Astro has seen a 20 percent increase in qualified RFQs, which has already converted to double-digit revenue growth. The company receives an average of 10 new RFQs per week from highly qualified prospects across the US, and in industries they had previously been unable to penetrate. The program helped deliver one of the biggest new accounts in Astros history: American Science and Engineering, Inc. (ASE) which manufactures x-rays for advanced cargo and parcel inspection systems. ASE was searching for manufacturers to produce components that would fit into a scanner that detects explosives. If it werent for Astros new web strategy, ASE may have never found Astro. The first order was $250,000 and, with the strong likelihood of future orders, Astro is looking to fill 15 new positions. Major medical device manufacturers are using ThomasNet.com too. Siemens engineers in Tennessee turned there to find a PET scanner manufacturer, and found Astro. They signed a three year contract worth $3 million dollars for 20 systems. Thats also how TIMCO Aviation Systems of North Carolina found Astro. TIMCO submitted five quotes worth $5 million for Astro to build aircraft seating. Another new customer that came to Astro through the web strategy is Steris Corp., a billion dollar manufacturer of medical sterilization equipment. After seeing Astros past work online, they placed an order to manufacture metal and plastic parts for several scopes, representing $2.5 million in revenue annually to Astro. No matter where our prospects are, we can compete head-to-head with anyone, said Mr. Peterson. Our new web strategy is our primary driver of new business leads, bringing us highly qualified prospects from all over the country. The cost of our new web solution is less than having one highly skilled outside salesperson travelling all over the U.S. And even the most exceptional salesperson could never cover the ground our new website does.