Fred Wagner
has grown Minnesota Wire & Cable Co. into a $7.1 million
company, in part by turning down business. For the last
17 years, executive officer of MWCC has concentrated on
manufacturing customized wire and cable assemblies for the
medical industry.
"I didn't want to try to be all things
to all people," said Wagner of his decision to narrow MWCC's
focus.
The decision to specialize came four years
after Wagner founded his company, a product rep firm which
supplied sophisticated wiring to computer, electrical and
technical businesses. He grew the firm as a manufacturer
and marketer of technical wiring and cable.
Over the years, seven of his nine children
joined the company. His son Paul, 36, is the president,
and daughter Joan Thompson, 40, is executive vice president
and chief financial officer.
In the early to mid-1970's, as more and
more electronics suppliers crowded the computer market MWCC
was servicing, the head of the family-run business saw profit
margins steadily shrink as a result of the competition.
"Anytime we got an order, it was the lowest
possible price," said Wagner, 66.
Wagner says he thought the company had
begun to lose sight of what it was in business to do --
provide a superior product at a fair price.
MWCC had never considered it a problem
to provide wiring and cable for clients in a variety of
industries, Wagner explained. But as so many other suppliers
entered his basic market -- and some made it a specialty
-- he saw it as more cost-effective to decline some business.
|
Once
he realized the
need to specialize,
technical wiring
manufacturer and
marketer Fred Wagner
quickly found a place
in the med-tech
industry.
By Riccardo A. Davis
STAFF WRITER
So, rather than continue to undercut the
competition, the long-time St. Paul resident decided to
find a specific industry in which to market the same type
of product.
It didn't take him long. Seeing what was
occurring in the local economy in 1978, Wagner identified
his niche.
"The health care industry in Minnesota
was red-hot then," Wagner said. And many of the medical
startups and professional support services required specialized
wiring.
MWCC now makes wiring for high-tech medical
equipment, including electrocardiograms, (EKGs); electroencephalograms
(EEGs) and electromyograms (EMGs).
The shift in focus resuscitated sales,
from an anemic $296,000 in 1979 to a healthy $3.7 million
by 1990. By 1993, sales had almost doubled again, to $6.3
million.
And the margin improved because the change
cut costs substantially: Accepting custom orders had required
a Labor-intensive routine of securing required materials
and setting up an assembly line to produce the particular
wire or cable and the connectors to link it to devices. |
The change in
strategy provided the main focus for the business, but Wagner
says he wasn't out to make that line of work its sole source
of revenue. It continues to manufacture products for a few
of the nonmedical businesses which it had serviced.
Yellow Springs Instruments, E.F. Johnson
and Boston Scientific are some of the nonmedical businesses
for which MWCC still produces wiring and cable.
"There's no use throwing out the baby with
the bath water,"said Wagner.
By being more of a specialist, MWCC found
it could continually manufacture a specific type of wiring,
eliminating the need to constantly break down and set up
new production lines. With the specialization came the ability
to maintain an inventory of product for which there would
be repeat demand.
Wagner, who takes cold calls himself from
potential customers, said he often steers them to other
outfits.
"I tell them, 'Why wait for us to make
it for you?'" said Wagner. "They've got it on their shelf."
That fits with the family patriarch's business
credo: "Don't try to do the things that you're not good
at,but do what you do good in excess." In other words, if
others out there can do something better, let them.
The company moved to its current location
in 1990, a 28,000-square-foot facility on Energy Park Drive
with manufacturing equipment and the capabilities to keep
up with demand from customers that include 3M, Medtronic
and Cabot Medical.
MWCC's St. Paul headquarters has 180 employees.
A separate manufacturing plant in Eau Claire, Wis., employs
an additional 70 people. |
