“This is a skilled trade,” says Personnel Manager for Franchino, Brad Rusthoven. “We’re not a production shop where people are pushing buttons, and they are hard to come by. We’re kind of left to hiring inexperienced people and training them ourselves.”
The family owned business was founded in 1955 by Dick Franchino and is now operated by his son, Bob. The company produces molds and die cast dies that other companies use in manufacturing. Now, they’re making more and bigger products and are growing their staff to keep up.
Fifteen new employees have been added to the Franchino staff in the last 18 months, and Rusthoven expects to add five more by the end of 2012.
“The one niche that we’re really getting into is building medium to large mold and die cast dies,” Rusthoven says. “It’s hard to compete with overseas with the small stuff, but they can’t ship the big stuff very well. About a year ago, we produced what we believe is the largest production aluminum mold ever. It weighed in at over 300,000 pounds.”
Rusthoven says the bigger products could lead to a need for more space and larger facility for Franchino Mold and Engineering down the road.
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