Business Tech

The Time for Tortoises

When a crisis occurs, thinking and acting fast can save lives. But planning ahead during peaceful times is just as important as acting quickly during a disaster. During the economic downturn, many companies failed because they had overspent their credit during the good years and had nothing to fall back on, leaving their more cautious competitors to pick up the pieces.

Robert Weeks, president of North East Silicon Technology (NESTEC), has been able to keep his company thriving during a time of widespread failures. NESTEC is quickly becoming one of the most successful silicon wafer reclaim technology companies, serving large semiconductor and equipment manufacturers and independent foundries. “Our year-to-year growth, except for 2009, has always been in the double digits,” said Weeks. And the key to his success has been keeping his company's expansion down to a sustainable level.

“One competitor—Rasa, in Japan—spent $300 million on equipment. They overextended themselves. And their market was based on prices that were from 10 years ago, and those prices have significantly declined,” Weeks said. “That's what happened with another competitor out in California called Kobe. They'd spent about $30,000,000 on operations, and their depreciation wasn’t sustainable at low market pricing.”

Weeks has taken a different approach to expansion. “We grow very slowly and in a very controlled manner. We wait for opportunities to buy equipment. Recently, there have been a lot of competitors that have shut down and ceased operations, so we've taken that opportunity to buy their equipment at cents on the dollar,” he said. “And we selected the best equipment, knowing the industry very well. This was where we gained a big advantage.”

North East Silicon Technology continues to grow at a controlled rate as Weeks takes on skilled employees and top-tier equipment from his bankrupt competitors. “Before, we had manual cleaning lines, but our latest 300mm silicon line is going to be completely automated. These tools actually came from a competitor out in California who paid millions of dollars, and we secured them for just a few hundred thousand. So that's one example of how we've been so competitive in this marketplace,” he said. “Some of our major competitors are facing stagnation in pricing and stagnation in growth and price reductions to the extent where it's affecting their sustainability. We're overcoming this by looking to the future. Our goal is to be the largest remaining reclaimer in the United States in the years to come.”

For more inofmraiton, please visit: www.nestecsilicon.com

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