Our 5 year anniversary! We look back and see the progress we’ve made, from a mere startup to a company of 30 staff. The company feels “so big” when the 5-year anniversary stickers arrive!
The Crew continues to grow in number and in cultural diversity. People born in Holland, Vietnam, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Laos, Minnesota, Cambodia, California, Thailand, Ivory Coast and Mongolia have worked together at Schippers & Crew. This makes for the best potluck gathering ever, with ethnic dishes from so many areas of the world.
Lease negotiations for our new space continue and in May we sign! This paves the way for tenant improvements to get underway, and of course the huge task of planning the move! We devote immense time to space layout planning for optimum work-flow, noticing every time the construction crew starts to wall in an area which should be a window instead, and only accepting alterations in the plan when we run into major problems such as the understandable unwillingness of the landlord to move the plumbing across the building.
During the year, we select and purchase more surface mount and through-hole assembly equipment – equipment that won’t even fit into our older facility! We get our first brand new pick and place machine, a Mydata TP9-2U. Also purchased are a used Electrovert wave solder machine and Treiber in-line washer among other items. Most of these are moved into our new space while the tenant improvements are being made.