Duryea-based Keystone Automation, a company that designs and fabricates machinery for manufacturing, logged its most profitable year ever in 2008, and company President Mike Duffy expects 2009 to be even better.
He credits his company’s recent growth and increasing profitability to the involvement of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, whose funding helped Duffy hire a CFO and matched Keystone Automation with a marketing firm to help develop new business.
Duffy founded the company in 1999 and it quickly grew from a one-man operation offering PLC programming and electrical wiring services to a business that employed a handful of engineers and machinists and focused on specialized turnkey machinery design and fabrication. In recent years, as the company pushed into international markets and annual revenues began to reach into the millions, Duffy realized he needed help managing the growth.
“I always try to golf with guys who are better golfers than me, and my game somehow magically improves,” he says. “Well, the same holds true with business management and marketing.”
With the proper management and organizational assistance in place thanks to Ben Franklin as well as the Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance, Keystone Automation has continued its expansion; in addition to implementing an internship program, the company recently hired two mechanical engineers and plans to hire at least one more this year, as well as other personnel.
“There’s a certain set of skills required to run a multi-million dollar company, and I was reaching the limit of my skill set when Ben Franklin came in and they’ve been able to take us to the next level,” Duffy says.
In the next couple of years, Duffy expects annual revenue to reach $10 million as the company expands its national and international presence. He also has plans to double the size of the company’s facility in Duryea with a 20,000-square-foot addition.
Source: Mike Duffy, President of Keystone Automation
Writer: John Davidson
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