April 24, 2007
By
Martin Luttrell,
Telegram & Gazette Staff
Breaking the Mold
Lancaster exec SBA Mass. Person of the Year
LANCASTER— When Craig A. Bovaird was building his
business, the plastic-moling industry in northern Worcester County was
drying up, so he carved out his own niche in producing complex
components that had to work right the first time in extremes of heat and
cold and stresses of combat.
And with the infusion of about $1.5 million in equipment and valuable
talent, Built-Rite Tool & Die Inc. and its
Reliance Engineering Division have seen a growth rate of 17
percent over the last seven years — with $4 million in sales last year —
and gone from 10 employees in 1999 to 35 today.
Mr. Bovaird, 52, of Princeton, was named the U.S. Small Business
Administration’s 2007 Massachusetts Small Business Person of the Year,
an award given annually to a person who exemplifies excellence in
entrepreneurship. Mr. Bovaird was judged on seven criteria, including
staying power, growth in the number of employees, increase in sales,
innovativeness of product and response to adversity.
He is to be honored today during an SBA program in Washington, D.C., and
will join nine other small-business award winners on May 11 at a
luncheon to be hosted by the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce in
Lawrence.
Built-Rite Tool & Die provides component design, mold design and
mold-making services for the plastics industry. Reliance Engineering is
the custom-molding division of the company and does full-scale
manufacturing of precision thermoplastic and thermoset plastic parts,
serving the defense, medical, aerospace and high-reliability electronics
markets.
“The most impressive part of building this company is that Mr. Bovaird
did it when the plastic-molding industry was in a major decline and many
plastics companies were closing their doors,” said SBA Massachusetts
District Director Maurice L. Dube. “Mr. Bovaird is to be commended for
increasing revenues and creating manufacturing jobs in Massachusetts.”
After graduating from Worcester State College in 1977 with a business
management degree, the Worcester native joined Holden Plastics in
Worcester, where he stayed for 20 years, becoming the general manager
before the company was sold in 1999.
“It was a start,” he recalled. “I never thought it would go to this
extent.”
Upon leaving Holden Plastics, Mr. Bovaird became partners with
Built-Rite owner James Essary. Later that year Reliance Engineering, the
newly formed molding division, received a contract to provide 40mm
grenade shell components to a manufacturer, and other molding jobs came
in as business at Built-Rite slowed.
Mr. Bovaird credits the hiring of manager Ron Caron in part with growing
Built-Rite to a national customer base. There were some setbacks, with
the grenade manufacturer losing the contract, but the addition of
machinery that allowed production of complex products 24 hours a day
built up the customer base, he said.
Working with John E. Rainey, senior management counselor at Clark
University’s Small Business Development Center, Mr. Bovaird developed a
business plan, purchased a company in Southeastern Massachusetts and
brought its equipment to a building he purchased a couple of doors down
Sterling Street from Built-Rite, to start the Reliance Engineering
Division. In 2005 he bought Mr. Essary
out of his half of the business.
The company, which had been working with a total of 10,000 square feet,
is now building a 4,000-square-foot addition, with another 6,800 square
feet planned.
“Mold companies were going out left and right,” he said of his early
years at Built-Rite. “They were going to China. The only way to compete
was with high-end machines capable of running lights out,” he said,
referring to the machines’ capability of running unattended through the
night.
“It was a difficult economy in 2000, quite shaky. The trend has been
offshore production. The only way to make it was in specializing. … Most
of these parts are complex, many dimensions on each part. We use
high-end engineering materials. We have a tremendous depth of talent.
Without them, this isn’t possible. That’s been the key to our success,
our people,” he said.
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