Winsted-based East Coast Lightning Equipment recently paid $1.2 million for a Torrington industrial building for its growing space needs. East Coast co-owner Jennifer Morgan said the company will maintain its foundry operations in Winsted and move machining and assembly operations to the Torrington building. She hopes to have the second location up and running some […]
Winsted-based East Coast Lightning Equipment recently paid $1.2 million for a Torrington industrial building for its growing space needs.
East Coast co-owner Jennifer Morgan said the company will maintain its foundry operations in Winsted and move machining and assembly operations to the Torrington building. She hopes to have the second location up and running some time in the second quarter of 2022.
“We are excited to have new space,” Morgan said. “We have needed it for a while.”
The 37-year-old manufacturer bought the 26,237-square-foot, concrete-block building at 187 Commercial Blvd., in Torrington in late December.
East Coast is hiring in anticipation of the expansion. Morgan said she hired three new people the week of Jan. 9, and plans to hire four more, for a total of 46.
East Coast Lightning Equipment’s history goes back to the Ackerman Lightning Protection Co., launched by Morgan’s parents — Charles and Judy Ackerman — in Winsted in 1967. The company installed and serviced lightning protection on residential, agricultural, industrial, commercial and government structures in Connecticut and New York.
Charles Ackerman began making components and, in 1984, the couple opened East Coast Lightning Equipment as a manufacturer. They sold the installation business to two employees to avoid competing with their new customer base.
Jennifer Morgan and her husband, Mark Morgan, joined the business in the early 1990s, eventually buying it from Charles and Judy Ackerman.
Today, East Coast Lightning has a 2,515-item catalog, selling to lightning protection installers in North America and the Middle East. Morgan said her company produces the vast majority of parts in its catalog, sourcing materials from domestic producers whenever possible.
Jennifer Morgan said she considered expanding the operation to northern Florida, which offers lower taxes with similar logistical advantages for distribution. But she said her own difficulty recruiting new staff, and similar problems relayed by client installation companies, swayed the decision to remain in Connecticut.
East Coast Lightning Equipment bought its new Torrington property from Decade LLC. Decade’s principal is Daniel Schreck, of Naples, Fla.
Schreck was also principal of FCT Electronics Management, an electronics parts supplier once located in the Torrington building.
“We are excited,” Morgan said. “Torrington has been wonderful to work with."
