Lamar Tool & Die Casting Inc.

As is the case with many companies, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Lamar’s employee count. “Right now, we have just south of 40 employees,” Kolsters discloses. “Before COVID hit, we had just a tick over 100. Our sales were drastically reduced, but things are starting to pick back up. We’re trickling more folks back in here from their ‘extended vacations.’” The pandemic also put a crick in the company’s expansion plans – at least for the present. Kolsters explains: “In our die casting facility here in Modesto, we have seven, fully-automated die casting machines ranging from 350 to 730 tons. We were on pace for a record year, this year. From January to February, we were just going gangbusters and the money was flowing in. We lost out on some opportunities because our largest machine is a 730-ton, and we wanted to look at getting a large die casting machine - up to 1,000 or 1,200 tons. Our current facility isn’t big enough, so we were going to expand our foundry by blowing out the back walls and building a little higher, so we could fit a larger machine. That was one of things we were hoping we could budget for. But then, COVID hit and that meant it’s going to be a few years before we can consider that. That was one of the things we definitely wanted to explore. We were actively pursuing it and then the world came to a screeching halt.” That being said, Kolsters insists that the company is still bullish on the future and is thinking ahead. “Continuous improvement is always a factor that we like to keep in the forefront of our business thinking. That expansion that I mentioned; we already have the plans drawn up for it, so we want to pursue that so that we can have the larger equipment. Also, the expansion would go even further, where we could do some of our parts processing at the machine itself, instead of having to move it to another department for processing. So, we’re going to streamline our processes a little more so that we can eliminate movement and waste. We’re also looking at ways to limit the number