Growth steady for Frazier parts firm

Jeff Frazier, president of Frazier Machine and Production Inc., relies on many companies as buyers to keep his business in precision parts going.

After 34 years, Perrysburg's Frazier Machine & Production Inc. isn't making millions of dollars or employing hundreds of people.

But the precision-machined parts manufacturer founded by Boyd Frazier has steadily grown, especially in the last half-dozen years since moving to Southpoint Business Park.

The company last year had $1.2 million in sales and added five employees, and it plans to add five to eight more employees this year, said Jeff Frazier, president.

"It's taken a long time to grow it to this point, but my Dad always said he'd built the business a job at a time," said Mr. Frazier, whose father remains the company's owner and chief executive in a consulting capacity.

Though the local economy has been troubled in recent years, Frazier has forged on with a customer base of more than 45 firms in an array of industries. Frazier specializes in small orders, ranging from one to 1,000 precision-machined parts. The parts can be found on Chrysler vehicles, machines making Champion spark plugs, or on local factory production lines, but no one company makes up a huge part of the firm's business, Mr. Frazier said.

"It was a good way to stay in business, because you not relying on only one account," he said. "By not having one big customer, the business has been pretty stable over the years."

Toledo's Radco Industries Inc. has used Frazier to make parts for the machines it builds because the Perrysburg firm has some advanced capabilities, such as making tiny parts on a computerized lathe outfitted with a camera, said Doug Michael, engineering supervisor.

"They're good to work with," Mr. Michael said.

Typically, Frazier's customers are based within 100 miles of the Wood County suburb of Toledo, although they may have plants throughout North America, to which the company ships parts. Frazier makes parts for equipment Federal-Mogul Corp. uses to make Champion spark plugs, drawing on a relationship it established with Toledo's former Champion Spark Plug Co. in the 1970s.

Frazier has invested $630,000 in the last two years to expand the business by adding state-of-the art machining centers. At least 80 percent of what the company manufactures is parts for cars and an array of other products, while the rest is used on factory machinery and other equipment. "We're optimistic about the opportunity for growth," Mr. Frazier said.

Contact Julie M. McKinnon at: jmckinnon@theblade.com or 419-724-6087.

Small Business Profile is a weekly feature on local companies. To be considered, send information about your company to Small Business Profiles, Business News, The Blade, P.O. Box 921, Toledo, Ohio 43697-0921.