Bill Laursen, CEO, Micron Solutions
September 16, 2019
Micron Solutions eyes growth, profitability after flurry of leadership changes
Photo | WBJ File
Unemployment in the Framingham area was 2.8% in August.
By ZACHARY COMEAU
With new leadership in place and a bold new contract, Micron Solutions is poised for a recovery and profitability in the near future after operating in the red for much of the past four years.
The contract manufacturer based in Fitchburg is nearly all new at the top, including CEO Bill Laursen and Chief Financial Officer Wayne Coll.
Laursen, named president and CEO last November, comes to the company from Westborough manufacturer Coghlin Cos.
There, he was executive vice president of business development where he helped the contract manufacturer win new business.
That’s one of his strengths he hopes to translate over to his new role at Micron, which he said had been muddling along for years but has a tremendous amount of potential.
He compared the company’s corporate culture to that of a startup, which needs to attract talent and raise capital to purchase equipment.
“At Micron, the equipment is already here, and a lot of talented people are here,” he said.
Now comes time to win new business, Laursen said.
Microsoft’s rounding error
Under Laursen, the company has already done just that.
In late August, the company announced a $3.7-million contract award with a leading medical device company, the identify of which it declined to disclose.
That contract alone is expected to boost revenues by as much as 20%, Laursen said.
“To bring on a 20% revenue improvement with a single order is important,” he said. “If we’re Microsoft, it’s a rounding error. For a company of our size, it’s meaningful.”
Identifying new business leads was exactly his role as executive vice president of business development at Coghlin, said Chris Coghlin, CEO of the contract manufacturer.
In addition to having a strong work ethic, energy and enthusiasm for the work, Laursen helped Coghlin score new business in several different sectors, including security, life sciences, medical device and robotics, Coghlin said.
A non-disclosure agreement prevents Micron from talking about the new contract, but Laursen did call the mystery entity a multinational firm doing business all over the world.
Laursen joined the company following four straight years of losses, which started with a $429,000 loss in 2015 when the company recorded $21.5 million in revenue compared to $24 million the year prior.
For the last two years, the company’s net loss has been above $1 million and annual revenues have consistently remained around $20 million.
According to Laursen, one of the many problems the company faced when he came on board was the lack of new business.
“We are fast and furiously in the process of winning new business,” he said, pointing to the $3.7-million contract. “If everything goes according to plan, we’ll continue to make similar announcements.”
Fresh leadership
In addition to Laursen, the company has rounded out its executive team with new faces, including CFO Coll, Senior Vice President of Operations Michael Simmons and newly appointed Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Andrea Tower.
Coll brings experience leading the finances for medical device companies, including Florida-based National Dentex Corp. Michigan-based Modern Dental Laboratory and Burlington-based Keystone Dental.
His expertise lies in mergers and acquisitions and scaling operations for growth in a variety of ownership environments while improving profitability.
In June, Micron reshuffled its board of directors.
Director Andrei Soran was named chairman, bringing his 20 years of experience as a healthcare CEO, including as leader of MetroWest Medical Center from 2006 to 2013.
Currently, Soran is the CEO of Maryland-based Trident USA Health Services, a medical device firm currently undergoing a Chapter 11 restructuring.
Simultaneous to Soran’s announcement, Micron said it was cutting costs and eliminating waste by selling two unused buildings on its Fitchburg campus for $685,000.
With the combination of new executives, new business and a new corporate culture, Laursen is confident the company will once again be profitable in 2020.
“The story is: This is a turnaround,” he said. “We’re taking a company that has great bones and we’re basically resurrecting it so it’s best in class.”
Emma moves on
The company began to make changes to its leadership team with Laursen’s hiring in November, replacing former CEO Salvatore Emma.
Emma’s CEO tenure began as it was struggling even back in 2013, when the company recorded a $3.5-million loss on revenues of $21.3 million.
He started with the company as a vice president in 2007.
Salvatore Emma, former CEO, Micron Solutions
After he was replaced as CEO, Emma resigned from the board of directors but stayed on as chief operating officer, a position he held for just a few months.
His employment was terminated effective Feb. 8.
He declined comment for this story.
Now, he and his wife Amy Emma are working on a Fitchburg company called Defcon Products, LLC which markets a device called TeacherLock, a school security door lock meant to combat school violence and mass shootings.
TeacherLock has been installed in several schools, including in San Antonio, Texas, Flint, Mich., Kansas City, Alexandria, Va., and Abby Kelley Foster Charter School in Worcester, where Amy Emma is principal.
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