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CASE STUDYFebruary 2012

Astro Manufacturing & Design, Inc. Soars in NewMarkets to Drive Double Digit Growth

Custom Fabricator and Machining Company Expands Customer Base withCustom Web Strategy from Thomas Industrial Network

About Astro Manufacturing & Design, Inc.Based outside of Cleveland, in Eastlake, Ohio, Astro Manufacturing & Design, Inc. is acustom machining and fabricating company, where every new business requestpresents a different opportunity to prove its capabilities. The company provides CNCand manual machining, sheet metal fabricating, rapid prototyping, vacuum forming,coating, and assembly services along with product design and development.

Astros customers span industries, from medical to military and aerospace to automotivetooling and equipment. Many of their customers are ranked in the Fortune 500,including Parker Hannifin and Lockheed Martin. Their aerospace and defense

applications run the gamut, including manufacturing components for aircraft, missilesand torpedoes as well as parts destined for the International Space Station.

Additionally, Astro caters to the medical device market, with its successful division,where they manufacture a range of orthopedic implants used to treat broken bones. Inaddition, Astro makes whole components that go into CT scanners and MRI machinesfor leading global manufacturers like Philips Healthcare. The company also builds andassembles deployable mobile CT and X-ray imaging systems for use by the UnitedStates military in combat zones, and provides surgical simulators for use in trainingmedical professionals.

Astro Manufacturing & Design is a second-generation family owned business. It wasfounded in 1977 by Mike Watts Sr. and colleagues who purchased machinery fromanother company that had closed. Today, the company is majority owned by Mr. Wattsson, Mike Watts, Jr. Over the years, Astro has expanded to a 142,000 square footheadquarters that includes five divisions across Ohio, each with its own plant. Thebusiness generates about $45 million in sales each year, and has 270 employees,including 10 dedicated sales reps.

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Challenge: More than double the companys size in the next five yearsLast year, Astros management team set an ambitious goal - to reach $100 million inrevenue over the next five years. In order to succeed, Astro would have to build newopportunities outside of its traditional Rust Belt territory. To succeed, they knew theycouldnt do it alone.

Fundamental to how Astro builds its business, the company seeks orders to build newproducts or prototypes, with the intent to develop those projects into long-termcustomers. To meet their new goal, Astro needed to be more visible within theengineering community, so they would be better known and top-of-mind for their keyaudience of product design prospects. Yet as a custom manufacturer, Astro doesnthave a standard line of ready-to-order products to view in a conventional catalog.Instead, the company sought a way to demonstrate their capabilities in a manner thatwould engage new prospects, leading them to submit a request for quote (RFQ).

That all important RFQ triggers a development process that can take weeks or even

months to develop. Astro needed a more efficient system, cutting back on unqualifiedinquiries and zeroing in on developing more relevant leads to their website. Then, theywould need a process to convert those leads into customers.

We sell manufacturing services and have a lot to prove at the outset of a new businessrelationship, said Astros Vice President of Business Development Rich Peterson. Howcan we get the customer to come to us? How can we get them to open the door?Those were our critical questions.

Solution: A complete web strategy that works like an always-on sales teamFrom their previous work with Thomas Industrial Network, Astro knew the company hadthe expertise to help custom manufacturers to grow. It was natural for Astro to turn tothem to build a complete web solution that would provide a roadmap for success.

Astro worked closely with Thomas Industrial Networks staff of engineers and Internetexperts, professional peers who understand how Astros target customers search forsuppliers. Together they built a new website that would give prospects confidence thatAstro could fulfill their orders. It includes a portfolio of Astros past work and highlightstheir various technologies. For instance, the website now showcases a project whereAstro manufactured an alternate heart pump from a single piece of titanium. The onlineexample explains the manufacturing process, including five-axis machining. This is thesort of specificity new prospects want to see when evaluating Astro for a potentialproject. The 11 other portfolio examples show a variety of Astro projects, like buildinginternal missile component housing and vacuum-formed plastic parts for cars.

To help drive more qualified prospects to seeAstros website, they also secured topranked positions on ThomasNet.com, the industry-leading online sourcing and selectionplatform for industrial products and services. The sourcing agents and engineers thatmake up Astros customer base regularly turn there when seeking a supplier.

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To best reach them, Astro appears at the top of searches for key phrases like MedicalComponent Design and Manufacturing Suppliers or ITAR (International Traffic andArms Regulations) manufacturing.

To help complete Astros new web strategy, Thomas Industrial Network also developed

an SEO (search engine optimization) program. Astros website is now optimized withthese same keywords and phrases to organically help Astro rise to the top of generalsearch engine results.

We now have a great opportunity to showcase what were capable of delivering to ourprospects, Mr. Peterson said. These web strategies working together are one hundredtimes more successful than making outbound cold calls, and are exactly what weneeded to create more new business opportunities.

Results: A diversified base of new RFQs drives double-digit revenue growthSince deploying this web strategy, Astro has seen a 20 percent increase in qualified

RFQs, which has already converted to double-digit revenue growth. The companyreceives an average of 10 new RFQs per week from highly qualified prospects acrossthe US, and in industries they had previously been unable to penetrate.

The program helped deliver one of the biggest new accounts in Astros history:American Science and Engineering, Inc. (ASE) which manufactures x-rays for advancedcargo and parcel inspection systems. ASE was searching for manufacturers to producecomponents that would fit into a scanner that detects explosives. If it werent for Astrosnew web strategy, ASE may have never found Astro. The first order was $250,000 and,with the strong likelihood of future orders, Astro is looking to fill 15 new positions.

Major medical device manufacturers are using ThomasNet.com too. Siemens engineersin Tennessee turned there to find a PET scanner manufacturer, and found Astro. Theysigned a three year contract worth $3 million dollars for 20 systems.

Thats also how TIMCO Aviation Systems of North Carolina found Astro. TIMCOsubmitted five quotes worth $5 million for Astro to build aircraft seating.

Another new customer that came to Astro through the web strategy is Steris Corp., abillion dollar manufacturer of medical sterilization equipment.After seeing Astros pastwork online, they placed an order to manufacture metal and plastic parts for severalscopes, representing $2.5 million in revenue annually to Astro.

No matter where our prospects are, we can compete head -to-head with anyone, saidMr. Peterson. Our new web strategy is our primary driver of new business leads,bringing us highly qualified prospects from all over the country. The cost of our new websolution is less than having one highly skilled outside salesperson travelling all over theU.S. And even the most exceptional salesperson could never cover the ground our newwebsite does.