Summa picks up speed
Now a leader in space, defense manufacturing, company started shakily
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
The contract to make structural components for the Marine Corps' Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle is just one of the many feathers in the cap of a small but booming Huntsville business.
Summa Technology's dramatic growth is evidenced by its business backlog, which has nearly doubled this year. The company projects $65 million in sales next year.
Summa designs and manufactures products and components for the biggest names in aerospace and defense. But as with many of the area's high-tech companies, its beginning was modest, if not rocky.
E.C. "Pony" Lee, president and founder, said many naysayers expected the company to fail in its first year, and it almost did.
A native of Honolulu whose childhood nickname stuck, Lee has two degrees in electrical engineering, an undergraduate degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.
A former division president of Litton Industries, he decided to start his own business in Huntsville, where he had spent time in the 1980s with a U.S. Army Missile Command air defense program.
"I didn't want to study things; I wanted to build things," said Lee, who, with his wife, Kay, founded Summa - then strictly an engineering services company - 15 years ago. His first order of business was "going out and looking for jobs" while Kay Lee handled administrative duties.
When Pratt & Whitney's manufacturing facility on Sparkman Drive became available, Lee saw an opportunity to expand into manufacturing, with one small kink. "We didn't have any money," he said.
He presented the sellers with an off-the-wall proposition he didn't expect them to accept. " 'Hey, with no money down, can we buy this facility? If we go bankrupt, we'll give you back your facility,' " Lee said. "Our surprise was that Pratt & Whitney agreed."
Now all Summa needed to complete the corporate picture were customers.
"It's like owning a brand-new apartment building, and there are no tenants in there. You've got to fill it up before the first mortgage payment is due," Lee said.
He got a lot of help from fellow Huntsville entrepreneur Frank Collazzo, president and CEO of Colsa Corp. "I've always been grateful to him," Lee said.
Within 10 months, Summa had gained two large customers and had a $100 million business backlog.
"It felt great. All we had to do then was perform," said Lee, who built Summa's infrastructure and hired a few dozen employees, all the while "trying to get enough cash to make it go. We nearly went bankrupt that first year."
Mistakes were made along the way, Lee conceded, but success has been consistent because of the principles under which the company operates - making quality products and offering competitive prices.
"We love competing with any large corporation. We almost always win because our prices are lower," Lee said.
Summa has acquired manufacturing facilities in Cullman and in Lebanon, Ky., bringing its manufacturing space to more than 460,000 square feet and its work force to more than 300.
Customers often find it incredible that so much work is done by so few people, said Jerry F. Thomas, vice president of programs and contracts.
Summa has a "world-class operation" that allows the company to make products from missile launch canisters, helicopter parts and engine machinery to aircraft machined parts, but Lee is not satisfied.
"I've been trying to get to $100 million" in annual sales, said Lee, who believes he'll get there with the help of his employees. He describes them as loyal and ethical, qualities that must be "earned by the company."
Ben Williams, corporate vice president for business development, boasts about Summa as "the premier aerospace manufacturer in this area."
Stephen Werner, Summa's vice president and chief operating officer, said the company's contract to help build the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle may bring about its biggest change yet. Consider, for example, that Summa recently received an order of 200,000 pounds for armored plate. "It's a big deal," Werner said.
Over the years, Summa has won accolades from the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. Small Business Administration and the National Association of Investment Companies. But Lee believes the best is yet to come.
Anticipation over the company's certain growth is in the air. "(It's) that special thing when you know things are going to happen, that excitement," Lee said. "You can feel it coming about."
© 2005 The Huntsville Times
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