FAB 40 highlights top metal fabricators, including acquisitive Cadrex

PR Newswire reported that Cadrex Manufacturing Solutions, owned by CORE Industrial Partners and newly named after a series of acquisitions, entered The Fabricator’s 2023 FAB 40 at No. 2 with $480 million in 2022 revenue.

MEC remains the list’s anchor. It has held the No. 1 spot on The Fabricator’s FAB 40 since 2011, and the 2023 ranking still has it there with $539.4 million in reported 2022 revenue, according to the list announcement carried by PR Newswire.

The Fabricator’s FAB 40 coverage described 2023 as an “inflection point” for the metal manufacturing industry. PR Newswire also pointed to increased demand as global companies reshape their supply chains, along with transportation and infrastructure spending and semiconductor manufacturing, as growth drivers for companies involved in cutting, forming, and welding.

The operational signal: fab capacity is becoming more standardized and more buyable

After a series of acquisitions in recent years, the newly named Cadrex Manufacturing Solutions, owned by CORE Industrial Partners, joined The Fabricator’s 2023 FAB 40 in the No. 2 slot and reported $480 million in 2022 revenue, according to PR Newswire.

PR Newswire reported comments from Dan Davis, The Fabricator’s editor-in-chief, who said the segment remains “somewhat of a secret to most.” In the same remarks, he said that without these companies producing almost $400 billion in goods each year, “the U.S. simply loses its status as a world leader,” according to PR Newswire.

Record revenues, but buyers should separate price from throughput

The FAB 40 announcement said the list again reflected record revenues, with some of the boost coming from material price inflation and some from increased demand, according to PR Newswire.

The Fabricator’s 2023 FAB 40 announcement said companies involved in cutting, forming, and welding continue to grow as they take advantage of expanded economic opportunities in the North American market. It also cited increased demand as global companies reshape their supply chains and said the industry’s best gain market share, according to PR Newswire.

For manufacturers with long-tail, high-mix part portfolios, this dynamic pushes a different kind of sourcing strategy. The best-fit vendor may be a scaled platform for the stable, repeatable work, plus a regional specialist for the prototyping and engineering-heavy jobs that still need a high-touch estimator and a shop-floor improviser.

What to watch in FAB 40 coverage

The 2023 FAB 40 announcement tied demand to global companies reshaping their supply chains, transportation and infrastructure spending, and semiconductor manufacturing, according to PR Newswire.

The question for operations leaders is where those forces collide first. In many programs it won’t be raw material availability, it will be the ability to hold tolerances consistently across multiple plants, maintain documentation discipline through engineering changes, and secure enough skilled labor to keep automation fed. Those are the bottlenecks that turn a “preferred supplier” into a single point of failure.

Supplier evaluation questions to add before the next bid package

• If a fabricator is growing through acquisitions, what is the integration plan for operations across sites, and what changes come first?
• How much of the last full-year revenue change was material price inflation versus increased demand, as described in the FAB 40 announcement carried by PR Newswire?
• Which end markets are cited as growth drivers in the FAB 40 announcement, including transportation, infrastructure, and semiconductor manufacturing, according to PR Newswire?