I’ve been interested in K&K Screw Products since I sold the founder of the company his first three Davenport screw machines a million years ago. There have been several ownership changes since then. The company now has more than 200 multi-spindles and changed owners once again in December. One private equity company sold the business to a bigger private equity firm this time around. CapitalWorks out of Cleveland had owned the firm (now KKSP) for five years, paid down the debt used to buy it, utilized the depreciation rules, improved the company by upgrading its data management, and facilitated two…
Author: Lloyd Graff
If mighty General Electric is in such bad shape that its Board is considering breaking the company apart, it makes one consider how our best assumptions about the future may be wrong. A few years ago, the consensus in the marketplace was that we would be running out of electricity generating capacity in less than a decade. With the slow approval process for utility plants, the overriding opinion was that a shortage would drive up the cost of electricity. It has not played out that way. Natural gas has taken an increasing share of generating capacity. It is now up…
The sound that a 20 ton traveling crane makes as it stolidly rolls north to south, south to north, on its electrified path, is very much like that of a lumbering freight train. I heard it all yesterday, backing and forthing, carrying its 700 pound containers of old dinosaur bones closer to their new home, 400 miles to the east. Of course, they aren’t complete tyrannosaurus skeletons being transported. They are a pile of Acmesaurus bones, the steel innards of 40-year-old multi-spindle screw machines unearthed from cabinets and shelves after being virtually buried for decades. I made my peace with…
We all absorb things from our childhood that literally wire our cerebral cortex and remain with us as we mature. There are images, sayings, emblems of fear and instigators of smiles. We soak up stories and develop a narrative that frames our lives. As I thought about writing this piece the line I remembered most vividly from my father while growing up, of a thousand things I heard from him, was, “You’ve always got to make the nut.” To him that meant you had to cover your costs every month. Losing money in business was FAILURE. It was just about…
New Year, new opportunities. I foresee a flurry of activity in 2018 in acquisitions in the machining world. Recently one of the largest screw machine operations in the country changed hands. KKSP Precision Machining based in the Chicago suburbs was sold by its owner, CapitalWorks of Cleveland, to Mill Point Capital of New York. CapitalWorks bought KKSP in 2012 with management participation. They successfully integrated the Monterrey, Mexico, plant which has around 25 Davenport screw machines with the Chicago and Wisconsin plants. The Wisconsin plant is in Pheasant Prairie, just across the border from Illinois. KKSP also has a plant…
It’s holiday gift giving time for those of us fortunate enough to be able to do it. Let me make a suggestion. If you have children or grandchildren young enough to be read to, find a book that you would love to read to them, buy it and then read it to them when they are preparing to go to bed. And read it with GUSTO. My favorite books these days are by the fabulous American illustrator and writer Mo Willems. The beauty of his works is that they are both extravagantly illustrated in vivid colors and enormously entertaining for…
I spent last weekend in Prague, Czech Republic—a wonderful place. One of the most famous tourist attractions in the city is the Prague Astrological Clock or Prague Orloj built in the 15th Century. The clock was a remarkable feat of engineering in its day for its multiple features, including a display of the position of the sun and the moon, and a monthly calendar. As I rode through Prague’s Old Town Square on my excellent bike tour my guide enlightened me about the clock’s dark history. Some historians dispute this story, but who knows what information you can trust these…
Does the National Football League bore you like it does me? I used to love the games. Thanksgiving was the day I would gorge myself on football and turkey. But last Thursday I watched a little of the Lions (who did they play?) and ignored the games that followed. The NFL has a lot of problems. The players die young or damage their brains. It still attracts the gladiators, but a lot of parents are pushing their boys toward other sports because of the apparent dangers. There are few good teams in the NFL these days. It’s the Patriots, the…
Today I have doctoring on my mind. I’ve spent the last 10 days in the throes of worry, tests, doctor visits and more tests. I came out the other side with a good diagnosis, but exhausted by the process. And I think of how much worse it would have been without my wife Risa accompanying me for every visit and comforting me throughout the experience. I also have had capable and caring doctors who explained everything in depth at the University of Chicago hospital. Still it was an ordeal. It started with seeing blood in my urine. Not a little,…
I get to do this blog today partly because my son Noah is traveling and will not get a chance to edit my writing like he generally does. I have the very fortunate opportunity to work with my adult son, Noah, in both the machine tool business and Today’s Machining World. I know “family business” may be passé to many people, an artifact of a simpler time when trades were passed on and farms stayed in the family because people felt tied to the land. But for a lucky few, father and child not only get along well enough to…