Sumner , who had been brought into Pro CNC , Inc . as Director of Operations in 2007 , was ingrained in the company culture when the owners put the business up for sale . He said they had entertained a number of prospective buyers but , as the company interviewed prospects , “ Trulife was the only business who had interest in us for the right reasons . They shared a lot of their culture and who they were ; it felt like a good fit .” The owners of Pro CNC , Inc . sold the business .
Today , the Poulsbo and Bellingham locations serve as both vendor and customer to each other . The focus of the Poulsbo location is on prosthetics and orthotics , and the Bellingham location provides machined parts to them . Conversely , the Poulsbo location supplies aerospace components to the Bellingham location . There is a synergy between the divisions .
While the company has been successfully operating in aerospace , medical and commercial markets , there were impacts on all markets during the pandemic .
Dagan McAtee , operations manager said , “ Our goal has been to pivot as much as possible . We still have a significant amount of defense aerospace work . We also have the prosthetic medical line — that demand hasn ’ t changed at all — we machine all of the machine components ( at the Bellingham site ) and deliver to our sister company in Poulsbo .” He said they had a reduction in force in 2020 as well , which affected over 30 employees in Bellingham . McAtee indicated most of the reduction in force was due to the grounding of the 737 MAX along with COVID-19 fall-out .
The company was spending about 70-75 percent of their time on aerospace , and they look to the future for replacing lost work . But , McAtee said he is unsure of forecasted volume and said ,
“ We look forward to the aerospace market starting to pick back up , although it likely won ’ t return to the 2019 levels too soon .” In the meantime , they have been diversifying with commercial projects such as mountain bike parts and fishing reels , “ Anything we can machine ,” said McAtee .
The outdoors focused commercial projects fit nicely into the lifestyle at the Bellingham plant location McAtee said . “ It ’ s a great town , a lifestyle town ,” he added . He cites living near Bellingham Bay , “ Mount Baker in our backyard , rivers , mountains , lots of outdoor activities .” He likes the proximity to Canada and Seattle , and the smaller-town feel with less than 100,000 people .
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