Stamping a Legacy

Somerset-based manufacturer MICRO celebrates 70 years.

By Anthony Bucci, Assistant Editor On May 4, 2015

Originally founded as Micro Stamping Corporation in 1945, Somerset-based MICRO, a contract manufacturer of medical devices/insert molding and fabricated tube assemblies, celebrates its 70th year of operation in the state.

“My family and I all grew up in New Jersey and we have never left,” says Frank J. Semcer, MICRO’s chairman. “We absolutely love the state.”

Started by a four-person group that included Semcer’s father, the company was originally located in Maplewood in a 28,000-square-foot facility and primarily focused on manufacturing high-precision metal stampings. In 1969, Semcer joined the company, four years after his father sold it in 1965. Then, in 1977, Semcer decided to buy the company back, and under his direction, the company grew to become a leading worldwide provider of medical device contract manufacturing services.

“When I took over – along with some of my key staff – we were able to diversify the company in the mid-‘80s to become a medical device company,” he says. “By the mid-‘90s, we were a significant part of the surgical device supply chain and now, approximately 70 percent of our sales winds up in operating rooms for patients. And for us, our ultimate customer is a patient who needs our devices.”

MICRO opened its medical division in 1986 and soon began developing ligation clips for a medical device manufacturer, thus establishing it as a leader in manufacturing titanium and stainless steel implantable devices, according to Semcer.

In 1988, due to the company’s growth as a medical device manufacturer, it decided to move to a 68,000-square-foot building in Somerset. In 2008, the company expanded again into an adjacent building, thus doubling its manufacturing capacity.

In the mid-2000s, MICRO expanded even further, this time establishing operations in Singapore and Korea to supply metal injection molding (MIM), ceramic injection molding (CIM), support tooling and raw tubing material. In 2005, the company opened a 20,000-square-foot facility in Largo, Florida, for insert/injection molding, automated assembly and stamping technologies.

Semcer takes pride in the growth of the company as well as it being a “true family-owned and operated business.” He now manages the company with his three sons and daughter: Brian Semcer, president; Frank Semcer, Jr., director of sales; Al Carolonza, director of business management; and Paige McCann, manufacturing coordinator.

“We want to remain a family business and, more importantly, all of our employees are part of our family and everyone enjoys working at the company, which is just really very exciting,” Semcer says. “We treat everyone like family here. We have grown the company from approximately 40 people to more than 350 people, and in 2015, MICRO will reach annual sales revenues of $100 million. I couldn’t be happier with the direction my family and I have taken the company.”

 

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