Globalization is a big word to Mark Cobb, and not just because it has a lot of letters.
Everyone, even small-business owners like Cobb, is affected by the spread of commerce beyond national boundaries. The owner of the Deltran Corp. in the North Attleboro Industrial Park observed that countries like China are moving vigorously into the center of the global economic arena.
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Cheap labor is one obvious reason.
“China doesn’t automate,” Cobb observed. “They just throw people at a project. But I think there’ll be a niche for the Deltrans of the world.”
In the case of his company, which manufactures precision metal stampings, Cobb said he competes by turning out high-end products and adding value wherever possible.
Deltran, in business since the early ’60s, benefits from the legacy of the Attleboro area jewelry industry. The companies that supplied those firms with flat stock developed special bonding methods to reduce the gold content of strip stock. Such techniques are used today in the electromechanical and electronic industries.
To serve those customers, Deltran produces precision parts, including tapped and quick-connect terminals, in a variety of materials, including stainless steel, nickel, nickel silver and a broad selection of special alloys used in the electrical and electronic industries.
One of Deltran’s strengths is its ability to produce – in one operation – terminals and other stampings that utilize tapped or threaded holes. This technique eliminates costly secondary tapping operations. It’s procedures like this, Cobb maintains, that will keep his company competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace.
On the marketing front, Deltran thrives by taking advantage of niche opportunities wherever they may arise – here or abroad.
“Wherever they do assembly, that’s where we ship parts,” Cobb said.
And that means sales in China and Mexico, as well as stateside. Major corporations such as Texas Instruments and Tyco, for example, assemble parts at offshore venues like Mexico. Deltran products are a part of that equation. It’s this kind of cross-pollination that defines 21st century business.
Deltran’s strength lies in its ability to produce exquisitely precise parts – some smaller than a little fingernail – in prodigious quantities.
“We turn out about 320 million stampings per year,” Cobb said. “We know the sources of good bonded components. We can make electrical contacts through plating or bonded material.”
Deltran maintains 30 to 40 customer accounts, shipping product throughout the United States as well as to China and Mexico.
Irving “Bud” Cobb, Mark’s father, joined fellow Texas Instruments employee Don Skinner to form Deltran in 1961. The senior Cobb was involved with tool design at TI – then Metals & Controls – and Skinner was a member of the company’s sales force.
The two began designing, producing and marketing tools for the electronics industry out of a 4,000-square-foot rental shop on Spruce Street in North Attleboro.
“Somebody asked them whether they made stampings,” Mark Cobb recalled. “They came up with a proprietary method of threading that gave them a competitive advantage.”
The company thrived, easing its way over a couple of economic bumps in the road, and now employs 20 people, most of them toolmakers or power press operators. The firm utilizes independent sales representatives to reach the marketplace. Some are located in Mexico, where, as Cobb has indicated, there’s a substantial amount of business.
The younger Cobb grew up in North Attleboro and attended Northeastern, where he took advantage of the university’s co-op program to work at Texas Instruments and The Foxboro Company. He stayed in touch with the family business by moonlighting at Deltran.
When he graduated with an engineering degree, he opted not to join Deltran immediately, but rather to absorb real-world experience out of town. This plan took him to Connecticut, where he worked for the Torrington Company.
“In the ’70s, business took off here (at Deltran) while Torrington was going through some changes,” he recalled.
So he joined Deltran as a tool engineer in 1979, handling the bulk of the company’s design work. Since 1993, he’s been responsible for all of Deltran’s design efforts. He took over the company when Bud Cobb retired in 1998.
In between rounds of golf, Mark’s dad still manages to make appearances at the company. But the generational transition has been seamless, and the younger Cobb is now steering the ship. As he says, globalization may present challenges, but in the final analysis, it means that the horizon is broader for everybody.
