Reps. McGorty, Perillo Visit Beta Shim on Business Tour
Zach Pratt, VP of Manufacturing at Beta Shim shows Reps. Perillo and McGorty some of their work.
State Representatives Ben McGorty (R-122) and Jason Perillo (R-113) have launched a new tour of small businesses throughout Shelton, and started off with Beta Shim manufacturing. They met with Zach Pratt, VP of Manufacturing; John McCue, CEO; Sandra McCue, CFO; and other executives and business industry association leaders for two hours on Tuesday, April 11th.
“Meeting with the folks here at Beta Shim helps us get broader insight into what they do and how they do it,” said Rep. McGorty. “There’s no better way for us to know how to help our regional manufacturers than to spend time with them learning about their business.”
“Particularly in Connecticut’s current business climate, we are very interested in visiting our area businesses and finding out what we can do in the General Assembly to help them be as successful as possible,” said Rep. Perillo. “On this tour, we are looking for more than a photo opportunity, but a true opportunity to learn from a key Shelton manufacturer about what we can do to help make them more successful.”
Beta Shim originally made shims, but in the past ten years has expanded to producing various industrial parts. They have made advances in quality control, increasing the number of machines per person on the line, and have been focusing more on employee training.
Sikorsky is Beta Shim’s largest customer, but since their merger with Lockheed they have done less business with them. Originally Beta Shim was in California, but moved to Norwalk, and then Shelton to be closer to Sikorsky – highlighting the area dependency on suppliers to the aircraft manufacturer.
Beta Shim is eager for customers to know that they manufacture more than shims, and noted that similar parts can be manufactured at 75% of their cost, but they are highly inferior and not up to the exacting standards of manufacturers like Sikorsky.
The Shelton legislators expressed appreciation to Beta Shim for hosting them, and said they will look for opportunities to support their business and other critical manufacturers in the region.
L-R; Rep. Jason Perillo; Rep. Ben McGorty; Zach Pratt, VP of Manufacturing; Sandra McCue, CFO; John McCue, CEO; Brian Flaherty, Senior VP of Public Policy at Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA)