Compass Precision Adds 10th Operating Company
CHARLOTTE, NC – November 18, 2025 – Compass Precision, LLC, a Charlotte-based manufacturer of custom, close-tolerance metal components for mission-critical applications, announced Tuesday it has acquired Trutron Corporation in Troy, Michigan.
Founded in 1967, Trutron is a leading manufacturer of extreme precision, complex geometry parts. The company services several industries, including primarily aerospace.
”Compass focuses on making difficult components most CNC shops avoid,” explained Bill Canning, President & COO. “Aerospace and defense is our largest market.”
“Trutron fits perfectly with our strategy.”
Trutron started as an EDM shop, mostly servicing the automotive industry. Around the turn of the century, Trutron began shifting towards the aerospace market.
Over the decades, Trutron expanded its equipment set to become a full-service shop. Today, the company has seven 5-axis capable machining centers.
Trutron President Lisa Kingsley sees the shop blending perfectly into Compass’ portfolio of operating companies.
“It was clear immediately in our meeting there were synergies between these companies. We do precision machining in a niche market,” said Lisa. “It turns out that that’s what Compass is all about.
“They’re buying machining companies in niche markets.”
Lisa and Trutron Vice President Ron Dobreff met with numerous potential acquisition candidates. They both individually concluded Compass was the best possible buyer.
“Out of everyone we saw, Compass was someone that gave the best initial feelings,” said Ron. “It seemed like there was a good blend with shared priorities.”
After a transition, Lisa plans to retire while Ron will continue his employment at Trutron under the Compass umbrella.
Three machinists with a contract from a company formerly known as Vickers established Trutron 58 years ago. With that contract, the three machinists borrowed money to purchase an EDM machine.
And Trutron was born.
Lisa joined the company about two decades later. At the time, she was working in commercial banking, but her new husband, Dennis Carlson, who was one of Trutron’s founders, convinced her to work at the machine shop. Dennis gained full ownership of Trutron, buying out his two original partners over the years.
Lisa and Dennis ran the machine shop together for about two decades. After Dennis passed away about 20 years ago, Lisa continued serving as Trutron’s president.
Ron joined the company in 2011 as a programmer. He previously worked as a supervisor at a competitor, which went out of business. Ron earned a supervisor role at Trutron in his first year, and he became the shop’s vice president in 2015.
Working together for about 15 years, Ron expressed how hard it will be to see Lisa leave. But he added that she deserves this time to enjoy the fruits of her labor.
Lisa said it was a difficult decision to sell. But grateful for her many rewarding years at Trutron, she is excited to be able to spend more time with family and friends, travel, ride horses and pursue other interests. Although Ron was initially apprehensive about new ownership, he is greatly looking forward to the advantages Compass will provide.
“I love the idea of having more resources,” said Ron. “I want this place to grow.
“Having more resources is going to make things better for everyone here and for the company.”
Lisa described her connection with Trutron as a parent-child relationship. While it’s hard to let go, putting the company in the best position to succeed was Lisa’s top priority.
“It’s extremely important to me that I pass the company to good hands. When I finally told my people that I was retiring and the company had been sold, I wanted to be able to stand in front of them and say, ‘This is a good thing. I see a bright future for you.’”
Lisa said some groups she met with “didn’t understand much” about Trutron’s business. She stressed that was not the case with Compass, which has already gone through seven company acquisitions since 2020.
Compass Precision was formed with the purchase of Advanced Machining & Tooling, LLC, Quality Products & Machine, LLC and Tri-Tec Industries, LLC in October 2019. Compass made its first add-on acquisition with Gray Manufacturing Technologies, LLC in 2020.
All four of those operating companies are in the greater Charlotte, North Carolina area. Over the past four and a half years, Compass added five more machine shops across the United States before purchasing Trutron.
Together, Compass’ 10 operating companies serve a diversified group of blue-chip customers in the aerospace & defense, space, semiconductor, medical, industrial automation, power generation, telecommunications, oceanographic research, and specialty industrial markets.
In addition to expansion via acquisition, Compass has also grown significantly since its formation in 2019 by investing aggressively in advanced equipment and adding new customers drawn to the company’s mantra of “we do the tough stuff”. Compass has concentrated its CAPEX expansion on machines capable of running unattended, lights-out, and/or in multi-tasking mode whereby previous discrete CNC machine processes are combined into a single operation.
“The technology underlying CNC machining is advancing quickly,” said Compass CEO Gary Holcomb. “We are capitalizing on these developments by buying the latest machines capable of doing even more difficult parts faster and with fewer set-ups and operator intervention. We put our money where our mouth is regarding “we do the tough stuff”.
For more information on Compass and this acquisition, please contact Jim Miller, Compass’s Vice President of Sales, at jim.miller@compassprecision.com.