wiredinUSA April 2013

Moving with the times is a 90-year tradition

Gavitt Wire & Cable Co of Brookfield, Massachusetts, is celebrating its 90 th birthday. Founder Lester Gavitt started the company in 1923 making buggy whips and shoelaces. A ham radio enthusiast, Mr Gavitt "could see a need for wire and cable," and as he had the braiding equipment, got into the business of making them, said company president Mr Ray Chesson, whose family acquired the company in 1977.

The company’s products include specialist cables for headset communications: “We went to the moon," said Ray Chesson, company president. Another strong area is medical electronics. The product they make is "small, lightweight and strong," Mr Chesson said, the thinnest being three times the diameter of a human hair. Very much a family firm, grounded in the community, the company has been part of the local economy for nine decades. "We're very proud that our employees stay with us," Harold Chesson said. "At one time we had a half a dozen employees who'd been here more than 40 years." And not just workers. The factory today includes a vintage cable spinning machine, made by the American Brass Co, that has been in operation since 1937. The company employs 45 people, doing custom jobs for some 200 clients worldwide. While much of the company's competition comes fromChina, theirs remains a "made-to-order" business. "We'll do down to a thousand feet of custom runs," Mr Chesson said, though: "We've got one order on the books right now for 60 million feet.”

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