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Another test-equipment company sold
October 29, 2007

Last week, Flir Systems announced that it will acquire Extech Instruments. Flir manufactures infrared temperature measurement equipment and Extech sells a wide variety of test equipment ranging from DMMs to lab instruments to stopwatches. Extech's printer division manufactures portable serial-port printers. I bring this to your attention because I worked at Extech just prior to my stint at T&MW, which is now 15 years.

While I was at Extech, I worked in the instruments division as an applications engineer and was instrumental in starting the printer division. The first printer, called the "Comms Printer" was designed to fit on top of the Psion Organiser, a handheld PDA-predecessor that was ahead of its time. At the time I worked at Extech, I was the only engineer in a company of about 15 people. We used several engineering consultants to develop the printers.

Almost all of the test instrumentation that Extech sold at the time was imported from Taiwan. Most of the instruments were private-branded from Taiwanese manufacturers. The printers, while designed in the U.S., were manufactured in Taiwan. Many of the company's products are now manufactured in mailland China, which is partly why Flir made the $40 million purchase. According to the press release, Flir wants to take advantage of Extech's Asian connections.

Today, Extech has nearly $40 million in annual sales and about 100 employees. Several of the people I worked with years ago are still there. I'm sure the announcement came a shock to them. Life will surely be different because Extech is currently owned by president Jerry Blakeley, and it's been very much Jerry's company since he started it in 1971. I wish the employees well and I hope that the new owner won't move in and cut jobs.

Posted by Martin Rowe on October 29, 2007 | Comments (1)