Made in Atlanta: Suwanee company bends metal

In its hopeful turn toward recovery, Winton provides a small economic indicator. But the company offers other lessons, too: to be persistent, nimble and diverse, yet willing to specialize.

In at least one stark way, Winton Machine is unlike most companies in metro Atlanta. Roughly 90 percent of the region’s businesses are in services, while Winton is a manufacturer -- making machines that bend tubing used to make other products.

Yet it shares traits with many businesses in all sectors these days: It is small, struggling and somehow holding on.

During good times, Winton Machine swelled to about 20 employees. It now has 11.

“Two times, we were on the verge of closing,” said Lisa Winton, 43, co-founder, CEO and wife of George Winton. “Once was when we didn’t get paid for a $100,000 machine. We learned you never take an order without a deposit.”

In the past two years Winton depleted two lines of credit and maxed out the founders’ credit cards.

“I robbed Peter to pay Paul,” said Lisa Winton. “It’s creative financing, man. You’ve got to find ways.”

Although manufacturing has shrunk as a share of the economy, its value remains: above-average pay, higher-impact spending locally, emphasis on innovation.

Yet even when the economy was expanding, Winton had trouble getting capital. Lenders loved real estate and retail franchising -- where loans quickly produced profits.

“No bank understands manufacturing,” said Lisa Winton. “Everything else was retail, real estate, franchises. We were so risky to them.”

Financing tightened just as Winton needed money to buy equipment and hire personnel. The company finally received a loan backed by a Small Business Administration guarantee.

“It turned out that manufacturing was actually less risky. We were making something,” Winton said. “We couldn’t be here today without the SBA loan. But you can’t depend on it for cash flow.”

Winton sells its products to other manufacturers, which means that the increased orders they have seen are signs of broader improvement.

For example, in the middle of the 10,000 square-foot Winton facility sprawls a 2,000-pound, $140,000 “serpentine bender.” One push of a yellow button and the pre-programmed machine starts bending a long strand of 5/8 inch of “mild” steel into a snake-like pattern.

A Tennessee company is buying the machine to make refrigeration units for tractor trailers.

Winton competes mainly by that kind of customization -- adding wrinkles to machines that low-cost manufacturers will not bother with, or building machines for specialized uses.

Wrapped tightly in plastic near the loading dock is a device waiting to be shipped to a company that makes fuel lines for Harley Davidson motorcycles. Not far away is a machine that makes probes that are used to test electron chips.

For a time, the company had sold “standard” tube-bending equipment. But they found their advantage was customized machines.

“We have to look for nooks and crannies they can’t slip into,” George Winton said. “We can give the customer exactly what they need.”

Customers range from big government agencies like NASA and the Army to companies in a range of industries -- anyone who needs bent tubing. They have sold machines to Israel, to South Korea and to China, too.

Tubes used for schoolroom chairs, walkers, weed whackers, auto fuel lines, propane torches, solar cells and boat rails for Boston Whalers, among other things, were all shaped by Winton Machine products.

One of the better-known strollers for children uses tubes bent in a Winton machine that costs $470,000.

“We are not depending on any one thing, not depending on any one market or any one industry,” Winton said.

Part of an occasional series on metro Atlanta companies that make things.