June 23, 2014
Shop Talk
Q&A with Mark Brandon and Stacy Brandon of DMT Diamond Machining Technology
Photo/Matt Volpini
By Rick Saia
Marlborough's DMT Diamond Machining Technology of Marlborough was recently honored by the U.S. Commerce Department for its exports, which have grown, on average, 18 percent a year for the past five years. The company, which makes diamond-sharpening tools used in a variety of industries, is run by the husband-and-wife team of Mark and Stacey Brandon.
You were recently honored by the Obama administration for your success in the export market. In which countries are you seeing the most success?
Mark: We exported to over 30 countries last year. It's really all around the world with the exception of Latin America. But in general our big markets are in Europe, the U.K., Germany, Norway, The Netherlands ... we've started to see quite a nice growth in Russia and then (we) have a great distributor down in South Africa. We're in Australia, New Zealand. We have a long-time distributor in Japan and we just picked up new business in South Korea.
You bought the company less than a decade ago. What was the chief reason why you made such an investment?
Mark: I had been in multinational corporations for a long time, and was at a point in my career where I was looking to do something different. And most of the people I knew that were happiest were running their own companies. And I was sort of at an age and a place in my life where (I thought) if not now, when? I knew I wanted it to be a manufacturing company. And we knew we wanted to stay in Massachusetts.
You took the risk. How well has it paid off?
Mark: It's been great. The timing could have been better. We bought it in '05 and the business … was kind of stagnant at the time. So our first job was to get it to a point where it was pretty much flying level, and we did that by the end of 2007 and immediately thereafter went into the recession. (We) had a couple of very challenging years, and in 2009, we, along with the economy and some of the things that we had been doing … began to kick in.
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Shop Talk - Mark and Stacey Brandon, DMT Diamond Machining Technology
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