Thin Film Metal parts moves

Thin Film Metal Parts has a new address, but the Eagle Electronics LLC subsidiary is still in the same northwest Colorado Springs building.
The company — which produces encoders, radio-frequency shields, electroformed mesh and other metal, glass and Mylar parts for the electronics, aerospace and medical industries — shared space until early February with former corporate sibling Photo Stencil.
After Boulder-based Kachi Partners bought Photo Stencil in June, Thin Metal Parts had to divide the space and operations the two companies shared at 4725 Centennial Blvd.The building was remodeled to separate the two companies and give each an entrance.
As a result, Thin Metal Parts is now located at 4733 Centennial Blvd. and has nearly doubled its space to give the company its own clean room and to accommodate additional support staff for accounting, information technology and other duties.
Thin Metal Parts now employs about 35 people, up from 25 before the split, and has acquired several new pieces of state-of-the-art equipment that will allow the company to expand its product line, said Craig Spitzfaden president of Thin Metal Parts.

Spectranetics looking to new market

Spectranetics Corp. is hoping to tap a potential $100 million-a-year market in a new clinical trial started earlier this month.
The trial that uses its medical laser to clear clogged stents in upper-leg arteries and then inserts a plastic-lined stent made by W.L. Gore & Associates Inc. to prevent new blockages. The patients were treated by Dr. Eric Dippel at Midwest Cardiovascular Research in Davenport, Iowa.
Spectranetics Chief Executive John Schulte said last week that the company hopes to sign up 100 patients in the trial by year’s end and gain federal approval for the new therapy. Schulte estimates about 50,000 patients a year could benefit from the therapy.
“It is a big market opportunity. Physicians are looking for a new mechanism for these types of patients,” Schulte said.
The potential new market would be good news for investors, shocked earlier this month when the company’s stock dropped 30 percent after it missed analysts’ fourth-quarter earnings forecasts by 2 cents a share.

Longtime Sinton executive retires

Joel Midkiff retired July 31 as general manager of Sinton Dairy after a 37-year career where he started as a deliveryman.
Midkiff, 59, was replaced by Matt Conner, who previously was general manager of an Oak Farms Dairy plant in San Antonio. Midkiff had been general manager of Sinton since National Dairy Holdings LP bought out him and former partner Larry Losasso in 2003. They led a 1987 management buyout of Sinton from bankrupt Associated Grocers of Colorado.
Midkiff said he plans to remain active with political campaigns and non-profit groups, including the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry. He was named the chamber's Business Citizen of the Year in 2005 and served as chairman of CACI in 2004-05.

Wybron gets second-largest order

Wybron Inc. will deliver its second-largest order ever in September to the Dubai Mall Aquarium in the United Arab Emirates.
The 164-foot aquarium will pay more than $500,000 to the Colorado Springs-based manufacturer of theatrical lighting fixtures and related products for 226 large-format "Aquarams," a lighting fixture that can display and change 32 colors, and an "InfoTrace" control and management system to control all 226 fixtures, Wybron announced last week.
The lights will allow visitors to the world's largest mall in downtown Dubai to see "sharks, stingrays and other species in their natural habitat" when the aquarium opens in 2008, Wybron said in a press release issued Thursday. Wybron will complete the order with existing staff.
Wybron's largest order totaled more than $600,000 in 2006 from a mall in Doha, Qatar.
"We are very pleased with the spike in sales of our architectural fixtures," said Wybron Chief Executive Larry Turner.

Schlage Lock owner has admirer

Warren Buffett likes something about Ingersoll Rand Co. Ltd. The investing guru's Berkshire Hathaway has bought 636,600 shares since Jan. 1. Buffett may like foreign prospects for the company, which employees a few hundred at its Schlage Lock operations in southern El Paso County. The company "wants to derive a higher percentage of its revenue from overseas," according to Reuters, which noted sales in the latest quarter rose 23 percent in Europe. So far it's another wise investment by Buffett, with IR stock up about 5 percent this year and the company saying it expects earnings to be more than 20 cents higher in its next earnings report.