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As he gives a tour of Temco Tool's impressive facility on Holt Avenue in Manchester, Norm Gagne compares his main task as president of the company to that "of steering a boat."
In this case, the ship is a 28,000-square-foot, highly computerized machine shop that is a rarity these days - a successful and growing manufacturing firm.
It certainly isn't Gagne's father's machine shop. Temco Tool Co. Inc. was founded in 1963 by Francis Gagne and originally was located in the family garage. It remained a mostly one-person operation even after Norm bought the business from his father in 1980, but it has grown since into a multimillion-dollar operation with a national reputation for stellar tool production and quality service. Today, there are 30 employees running two shifts and producing more than 600 highly complex machine tool parts daily
Norm "is the visionary," says his wife Colleen Gape, Temco's vice president and treasurer, who has worked with him for more than two decades. "He oversees everything," including Temco's "slow and steady growth" in a diverse customer base that encompasses the region's defense, commercial and medical industries. The company's customers range from BAE Systems (Temco makes communication tools for military aircraft) to Velcro.
Most Temco customers are long-term partners, and the company does little marketing. Among other roles, Gagne is the sales force. "Most of our customers come to...