Business View Magazine | August 2020

55 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 LAMAR TOOL & DI E CAST ING INC . a relationship with a company in China. “They build some of the highest quality and advanced tooling I’ve ever seen,” he states. “So, if they want to save money, we do have that option, as well. And it works out well for us; it’s actually gotten us a number of jobs because we were able to save money on the tooling investment. Even including the tariffs, I can still get a very high quality tool done for considerably less than I can stateside. I hope that changes sometime soon, but the way it is now, I’ve got to be competitive and that’s one way I can do it.” Kolsters adds that all of his material suppliers are integral to the company’s operations. “Our material suppliers, who we’ve been purchasing from over three decades, are an important part of how we function in our business,” he asserts. “If we don’t have them, then we can’t supply our customers. We have a very good relationship with them; we may have hit some rocky roads over the years, but we’ve always come out of the ashes stronger and better than ever.” that make these components. We have other industry customers. For example, there’s a company called LR Dynamics; we make some parts for the pulley systems for basketball hoops in gymnasiums. We make the clam shell and the pulley, and then they assemble the cable so you can retract the basketball hoops. I didn’t realize that that was such a big industry, but we make thousands of those a month. “We do a little bit of medical; a tiny bit of aerospace. We don’t really want to dive too much into aerospace because of the strict guidelines that you have to follow in order to maintain that type of business. It’s a lucrative business, but a little outside our scope at this time. But that’s not to say that in the future there wouldn’t be an advantage in that.” Regarding the competition, Kolsters explains that he can control costs for his customers that favor products made in the USA, with a local source for raw materials, and for those who don’t have a particular preference, Lamar has