Last week, Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino paid a visit to the manufacturing powerhouse Designatronics in Hicksville to honor CEO Robert Kufner in his leadership of the company the town deemed Employer of the Month.
Designatronics, which is composed of the brands Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instrument, QTC Metric Gears and QBC Quality Bearings and Components, has served a worldwide customer base since the company’s founding in 1950. In 2016, the product manufacturer moved to its current home on Duffy Avenue in Hicksville—a newly constructed 96,000-square-foot facility designed to improve efficiency and provide ample room for the company’s growth.
As part of the 2018 Regional Economic Development Council awards, Designatronics received two grants from New York State, one for $200,000 to acquire new machinery to increase capacity and efficiency, and one for about $100,000 to provide training for employees.
“It’s a big deal to have such a tremendously successful business calling the Town of Oyster Bay home,” Saladino said. “When you have a company as special as Designatronics making a difference, it makes us very proud to have them here.”
After awarding Kufner with a citation, Saladino received a tour of the Designatronics facility, which boasts a stockroom with a catalog of about 87,000 part numbers, and got an up-close look at some of the things the company produces.
“Our mission is to provide the highest quality small-scale power transmission products at the customer’s request, on-time,” explained Kufner. “We cut across nearly every industry you can think of.”
Once a supplier of Grumman in Bethpage, Designatronics produces parts used in everything from solar arrays on Boeing satellites to Abbot Vascular’s heart valve repair surgery tool, the MitraClip. Designatronics sold 200,000 components for MitraClip, and next year will double that number.
“I am so proud of what we do as a company,” said Kufner. “I’m proud to be a part of changing peoples’ lives and advancing technology in our day.”
To learn more, visit www.designatronics.com.
