CEO Randy Philpot steers Advanced Composites to booming growth in markets ranging from aerospace to kayaking.
Engineering Technology, Inc. (Entec) started Advanced Composites in-house as a means of demonstrating the former company’s filament-winding equipment for customers.
Philpot came aboard in 1984 when the division was an afterthought, with three employees, and he started driving innovation and year-after-year growth.
By the early 1990s, the division had nearly 15 employees and was a competitor of Entec’s customers, who also got a firsthand look at Advanced Composites’ manufacturing processes when they came by for a meeting.
“It wasn’t a really good fit,” says Philpot of the rationale for Entec’s spinoff of the company in 1991. In the 23 years since, Advanced Composites has boomed to 100 employees while averaging 20 percent annual growth.
In response to the growth, Advanced Composites has added nearly 15,000 square feet of manufacturing space, bringing the total to about 50,000 at its facility in southwest Salt Lake City. Read More…