🔒Quick study Paluch adapts to leadership role

Krystyna “Krys” Paluch proudly shows the modern machinery humming inside her Enfield plant that makes precision aerospace parts, introducing operators and other staff along the way.

The machines — some acquired with state assistance — are all new in the last six years.

“We have to adapt quickly to stay competitive as we compete in the global economy,” said Paluch, owner and CEO of Phoenix Manufacturing Inc., who retains the Polish accent she's had since moving to the U.S. from Poland with her parents in 1980 at age 15. “We compete against countries that pay their employees a third what we pay. So how do we win this job? We have to have better technology,” and produce higher-quality parts.

Paluch, 50, has continued to grow the company since she was thrust in charge after the sudden and unexpected death of her husband, Lech, in August 2009. He died eight months after buying out the partner with whom he co-founded Phoenix Manufacturing in 1989, which then consisted of the two men with two machines. While Krys Paluch knew much of the business, helping with jobs since its founding and working there full-time since 2003, taking the helm took strength and support.

With sizable loans used to purchase the business and a staff at the time of 40 employees, Paluch said she had to keep the company going for them and her family.

Her son Peter, 26, who was already working in the business, and daughter, Martha Prou, 29, who was working in Washington and previously planned to join the company, wanted to keep their father's dream alive, Paluch said.

“So it was difficult, but in some ways therapeutic, to come here and to work hard,” she said. Her sister, Alicja Allen, also works at the company.

Paluch sat with staff and asked them to help her transition the business. Seeking expertise to replace her husband, she quickly hired a president, director of operations and engineering manager. Together, it worked.

Phoenix Manufacturing now has 64 employees, 30 machines and has enjoyed about 10 percent annual growth in recent years, Paluch said, adding that sales this year should be about $15 million. With airplane orders strong, the parts business is, too.

The company's largest customer is UTC Aerospace Systems. About 70 percent of Phoenix Manufacturing's parts, the largest measuring about 18 inches in diameter, are used in commercial aviation, including about 130 different parts in Boeing's state-of-the-art 787 Dreamliner. Other parts are used in military aerospace.

“You don't see us in the cabin, you see us in the guts of the plane, in the engines, in the air-circulating systems, in the fuel-control systems, electronic systems, we do a lot of that,” she said.

Brad Hodgdon, director of operations, praised what Paluch has done for Phoenix Manufacturing.

“It's been amazing for what she's gone through and where we're at today, for the investments that were made in the new machinery, just the time and dedication on her end — what she's done is just phenomenal,” Hodgdon said.

“She was really thrown into the fire and she's taken it on and grasped everything and went forward with it,” he said.

In one of her earlier roles at the company, in purchasing, Paluch tapped her chemistry knowledge — she previously worked in medical technology analyzing bodily fluids — to ensure the composition of raw materials the company purchased met specifications. At the company's start, she delivered parts and picked up tools, with then-infant Peter in the back seat, plus worked in medical technology to support the family as the business launched.

Paluch said her parents — her father renovated industrial furnaces and her mother was a crane operator — left Poland before martial law was implemented to quell the pro-democracy Solidarity uprising in the communist country.

“They always say that they came here to better their children, not themselves so much,” said Paluch.

What she's building at Phoenix Manufacturing, in turn, will help her children.