AUBURN – All the products shipped from Enefco’s Minot Avenue plant have one thing in common: They’ve made the cut.

Cleaners for electronic machines, shoe components and precision foam cutouts seem to be a disparate mix of products, but each was made using a kind of cutting technology. Capitalizing on that technology has allowed Enefco to expand to the point of adding a second shift for the first time in seven years.

But new co-owner and Chief Executive Officer Peter Klein said that’s only the beginning. Within three years, he plans to increase production at the plant until it is a 24/7 operation.

“We have $500 million in machinery here, but are only using it 27 percent of the time,” said Klein.

Klein and his partner Brad Yount bought the manufacturer last fall from former owner Norman Farrar. The company was already growing. Since 1991 Enefco has made leather counters, small curved braces that strengthen the heel of a boot or shoe. As the shoe industry declined, so did the demand for leather counters. But a federal rule that requires U.S.-made components for military garb coupled with action in the Mideast sent orders soaring. Then the company bought out its only domestic competitor in the counter field and now produces 50,000 counters per day, half of which fulfill the military contract.

“We’re doing a night shift to keep up with the demand and backlog,” said Klein.

The company is seeing growth in another of its products: cleaning cards for electronic machines. ATM machines, money changers, vending machines, hotel door locks – any device that needs to read a magnetic strip also needs to be cleaned. Enefco makes more than 500 different cleaning cards, each with a different chemical coating, for clients as diverse as the New York Transit Authority (subway turnstile cleaners) to Las Vegas casinos (slot machines and other gambling devices). The company turns out 80,000 cleaning cards a day.

Klein sees tremendous growth for the cleaners. McDonald’s restaurants are installing credit card registers and pretty soon New York City parking meters will accept credit cards. All the more opportunity to get the most out of his production facility.

“If we can increase the use of our assets by doing more of what we’re already doing, it goes to the bottom line,” he said.

He’s applying that same criterion to the company’s use of water jet technology. A specialized machine concentrates a stream of water to 50,000 psi, resulting in a laser-like intensity that can cut anything from foam to granite. Enefco uses the technology primarily for making foam prototypes.

A computer reads an image then directs the water stream to replicate the design in foam. A client can see the product and make any changes before committing to a permanent die cast for a product.

Klein said revenues are growing at the rate of 20 percent per year; he expects they’ll come in between $10 million and $20 million for 2004. He hopes to concentrate on improving the profit margin now that he’s CEO. He had been working as a consultant for the company since last June.

Klein brings marketing experience to the position, something he hopes will increase sales of the products Enefco is manufacturing. In fact, he sees the greatest challenge in figuring out which of the products to concentrate on. In addition to the cleaner cards, counters and prototypes, Enefco also makes cosmetic wedges and foam furniture glides.

“The risk is picking the right one from so many options,” said Klein. “The risk is in dilution. We need to stay focused and make the right choices.”

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