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Video: Company Evolves from a Manual Shop to a High Precision Success Story

Ian and Jack Wagter, owners of Lumar Machining & Manufacturing Ltd. of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, purchased the company with a customer base of two automotive plants. Today, Lumar Machining has a thriving business with plans to expand, adding even more machining technology.

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Ian and Jack Wagter, owners of Lumar Machining & Manufacturing Ltd. of St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, purchased the company with a customer base of two automotive plants. Today, Lumar Machining has a thriving business with plans to expand, adding even more machining technology.

When Ian and Jack came across Lumar, the most sophisticated piece of technology was a fax machine. Ian recognized the company’s potential and capitalized on its established employee base. After riding out a learning curve, Ian made the transition from process engineering in large plants to taking on a general machine shop.

 

bar chart showing improvement

With the recession that followed 9/11, everything was cut to a minimum. Despite maintaining lean operations, the owners took a leap of faith and purchased more CNC machines during the economic downturn. Because of their ability to look forward while others hunkered down, they were able to take advantage of great deals in the marketplace.

With new technology and a newly trained workforce, eventually Ian and Jack’s staff gained a foothold serving high precision customers in several new markets, while still retaining their two original automotive customers.

To see a video of the whole story, visit Tell Us Your Okuma Story at okuma.com. Here, you too can submit a video or written entry discussing your success using Okuma machine tools. 

 

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