There was a time when business was easy for the Dexter Research Center, a time when new clients popped up on the Dexter-based firm's doorstep. Then competitors took aim at the company and started to give it a run for its money.
When the people in charge of the DRC realized that, things changed.
"We made a conscious decision to do business differently," says Rob Toth, president of the Dexter Research Center. "We decided to go after business more aggressively. We have become more hunters than gathers."
And that change in philosophy is paying off. The firm founded in the mid 1970s has grown to 80 people, adding about 30 jobs in three years. It hopes to add another five this year as it continues to grow its bottom line.
DRC's sales have almost doubled in three years, from $5 million to $8 million, and it's aiming for $10 million this year.
"This has been a nice little run," Toth says. "We're trying to keep it going."
And it hopes to do that by branching out into new markets. The firm has made a living developing technology for the military, including infrared thermopile detectors. In plain English, these are sensors that take temperatures.
This technology has been used extensively in military vehicles to detect fires, however, its also being put out into the commercial world. For instance, its used in ear thermometers, fire suppression systems and emission sensing equipment for automobiles.
Dexter Research Center hopes to make more of its technology branch out like that into the private sector and use such aggressive promotion of its technology as basis for future growth.
Source: Rob Toth, president of Dexter Research Center and Kurt Hochrein, director of sales for Dexter Research Center
Writer: Jon Zemke
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