Sam Nicholson says he doesn’t necessarily believe in miracles.
But if the Norton businessman did, NWKEICI would be among them.
After traveling as a service tech in the industry, the career machinist found he was tired of time on the road and decided to work closer to home with a job at Miltech Machine Corporation. He was a couple years in when the former owner of Miltech decided to sell the business and retire.
“He was going to sell to someone in Missouri, and I really didn’t want to see this business leave,” Nicholson said. “I hated to see it go out of state.”
With a career that began in 1976, Nicholson had the know-how to run Miltech, which specializes in CNC Milling. Computer Numerical Control milling is a process used to produce a high quality, custom-designed parts or products with a precise finish. Problem was, Nicholson wasn’t able to secure traditional funding to purchase the business.
“I went to the bank to borrow money and I was going to have to put a lot down,” he recalls. “While the business was doing well, it’s not as though it would show a huge profit every year. We were unable to fit the necessary criteria.”
Business leaders in the community began to put their heads together to see if there was another option. That’s when Northwest Kansas Economic Innovation Center stepped forward. The group sat down with Nicholson to hear his business plan and wheels were set in motion.
“I really think it helped that I wasn’t walking into the idea of ownership blind,” Nicholson said. “I had worked here for a couple of years, I knew the innerworkings”
NWKEICI’s Business Loan Program was able to provide funding for Nicholson to make his dream of business ownership a reality.
“I think we’ve moved it forward and they are pleased with what we’ve been doing,” said Nicholson, noting that one of his first actions was to achieve AS9100 certification for Miltech – which pertains to the aerospace industry. This has allowed for a lot of business in the Wichita area in the state in addition to Miltech’s customers nationwide. From the oil and gas industry to nuclear power and occasionally medical, each piece meets the exact specifications of Miltech’s customers.
With 25 full-time and two part-time employees, Mitech prides itself on “short-run” production, meaning they do small quantities and pivot to the next project in response to a client’s needs.
“We might do 25 of a certain piece, and then five of another,” he explains. “We are setting up and tearing down pretty much every day. That has really been our forte. You look at the outside of our building and you may not necessarily be impressed, but when you come in and see the guys making the parts — there’s a lot more going on than the average person would comprehend.”
Nicholson is grateful to NWKEICI and the program that allowed him to keep a business in Norton and jobs in the community.
“Working with EICI has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “After people in the community reached out to them and tried to find a solution for us, they said this is exactly why we are here: for people who had a vision and wanted to do it and didn’t have the means to do it.
“It was a perfect setting for it, I don’t believe in miracles but it was as close as it can come to one.”
