Offering unmatched experience, unparalleled flexibility, responsiveness, and quality, Prime Technological Services is the ultimate Electronics Manufacturing Services partner. We delve into the company’s success story with CEO, Greg Chesnutt.
Across the US, the vast electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry underwent some serious supply chain shocks during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. However, supply conditions in the market are finally improving and showing optimistic signs of rejuvenation despite not yet returning to the pre-pandemic environment.
Situated within this expansive industry landscape is Prime Technological Services (Prime), which provides design, engineering, and manufacturing services for moderate-volume, high-mix and high-reliability commercial and industrial electronics markets.
Now a 35-year-old company with three production facilities in Georgia and Florida, Prime employs 250 team members and partners with approximately 125 customers across a multitude of diverse markets.
“We find the EMS market to be very exciting, growing, and we and believe the company is well positioned to participate and prosper in this growth,” introduces Greg Chesnutt, CEO of Prime.
Across the continent, technology and numerous applications of varying developments continue to proliferate in all aspects of our lives. Particularly in the Southern US, the economic and commercial landscapes find themselves as highly beneficial spaces for technology development and manufacturing.
“We feel Prime is uniquely positioned to participate in exciting industries such as medical, aerospace, defense, and high-reliability industrial markets. Our vision is to play a key role in improving, accelerating and sustaining technologies that positively impacts lives,” he sets out.
Proudly at the company’s helm, Chesnutt has served as President and CEO of Prime since June 2009. From January 2008 until his appointment, he was a board member and advisor, and in addition to his duties at Prime, is an Operating Partner at Covey Equity, LLC, the company’s largest shareholder. He now draws from over 25 years of experience as an advisor, investor, and operating executive in middle-market growth companies.
“I felt the company had great potential for growth and saw the industry as one rife with opportunity, and I still do,” he shares.
EXECUTING A SUCCESSFUL VISION
Prime was founded in 1989 with a core team of industry veterans and a clear vision for quality from the inside out. The company’s proven strategy for helping its array of customers succeed has been highly successful to date and continues to evolve and develop at pace.
“We are now working in our third location and have doubled our size with each move,” shares Chesnutt.
In 2007, a private investment firm specializing in mid-size manufacturers purchased Prime and began investing in newer technologies to leverage the broader growth strategy. Since then, the company has deployed its own financial capital on even more advanced manufacturing technologies, key personnel, processes such as lean manufacturing, and quality systems to help strengthen its position as a leader in high-mix and high-complexity, precision manufacturing. As a result of this carefully nurtured strategic development, Prime is now poised for even greater growth and success in the EMS world.
“We feel that our approach to serving customers is the primary differentiator for our business. We bring to them all the manufacturing capabilities of a Tier 1 EMS provider but do so with the agility, flexibility, and responsiveness of an entrepreneurial growth company,” he adds.
As a testament to this rapid growth, Prime has been named on Inc. Magazine’s Annual List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies—the Inc. 5000, for seven of the past 13 years.
A WINNING PHILOSOPHY
For many years, Prime’s belief has been that the only source of enduring success for its business is winning and keeping happy customers.
“While many companies claim to be customer-centric, at Prime, we work hard to develop a deep understanding and appreciation for our customer’s success and how their success translates into a benefit for our team members and owners,” Chesnutt acclaims.
Prime executes this core belief and communicates its commitment to these ideas through a company-wide core purpose, a carefully considered set of central values, and an overall brand promise.
“Our core purpose is helping customers reach their strategic goals by accelerating and sustaining their technological leadership, thus helping them achieve growth and financial success,” he adds.
At Prime, the company knows its purpose extends far beyond manufacturing and shipping products on its customer’s behalf, as clients view the company as an extension of the value chain that serves their ultimate customer or end-user. Therefore, the truest measure of Prime’s success is the enduring prosperity of its customers.
“We take our service commitment seriously and seek long-term partnerships with our customers. It is a part of our culture and is how we measure our progress as a business.”
Similarly, Prime’s core values are also taken extremely seriously throughout every facet of the business. These beliefs consist of remaining passionate about serving the customer, being committed to integrity, and maintaining transparency in all that the company does. Additionally, entrepreneurial flexibility is at the core of who Prime is, and the company both expects and rewards individual initiative within its teams.
Finally, Prime’s brand promise is to guarantee responsiveness and speed in managing its client’s electronics manufacturing and supply chain complexity.
BUILDING VITAL RELATIONSHIPS
Similarly, to how Prime has fine-tuned its business philosophy, the company knows it must also work hard to nurture and maintain other crucial working relationships with both its staff and its suppliers.
“Our suppliers are critical and vital partners with us in bringing value to our customers. Whether they provide us access to the electronic components market, cutting-edge manufacturing equipment, or engineered solutions for a customer’s product, we simply could not provide the value we do to the marketplace without their support,” Chesnutt affirms.
Alongside this, Prime is attempting to create a culture where its team can and is excited by the prospect of helping customers succeed. To achieve this, Prime continually reminds its people that in a competitive, free-market economy, the only source of sustained success is through attracting and retaining happy customers.
“We are constantly investing in physical, informational, and training and development assets to provide our team with the skills and capabilities to serve our customers. When we succeed, we share the results of our success with everyone on the team,” he adds.
“We find the EMS market to be very exciting and believe the company is well positioned to participate and prosper”
Greg Chesnutt, CEO, Prime Technological Services
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
Currently, Prime is focused on installing a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform for the business called Epicor.
“This development will add significant growth capacity to the business and will allow us to operate as one company and therefore realize significant synergies in key areas,” Chesnutt shares enthusiastically.
“The amount of artificial intelligence (AI) embedded in these systems is significant and will allow us to transform certain business processes, making them far more efficient, effective, and scalable for future growth,” he continues.
In addition to the Epicor platform, Prime is simultaneously investing in another surface mount technology (SMT) line for its Florida operation and is continuing to increase the company’s automation and robotics capabilities across all of its factories.
These exciting plans are part of a multi-year effort aimed at shaping the company’s customer base with a focus on medical, aerospace, and high-reliability industrial markets. Customers in these markets fit the desired profile, are well represented in Prime’s geographic market, and their products are highly sophisticated applications of technology that align well with the company’s own capabilities.
“Our sales and business development team has extensive experience and knowledge in these markets, and we have equipped them with the lead generation tools and messaging to attract customers and win in these markets.”
As always, Prime’s unwavering goal is to keep growing its business, which is shaped through a selection of annual and three-to-five-year growth targets that the company monitors closely in order to monitor and drive its actions and investment.
Crucial to this future-facing strategy, Prime has devised multi-year training and development plans to build the talented workforce needed to sustain its business over the coming years and continue to establish itself as the ultimate technological services partner.
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