Compass Precision Reaches Another Company Milestone
CHARLOTTE, NC – October 16, 2025 – Birthdays can be a difficult time for some Americans. So much so that it isn’t uncommon for people to shed a tear or two for growing another year older.
There was no crying on the birthday of Compass Precision this year.
Through record CAPEX expansion and another operating company acquisition, it was an incredible sixth year for Compass Precision, which celebrated its 6-year anniversary on Thursday, October 16.
“How quickly has the time gone? Yet, look at all the things that have happened in what can be considered a pretty short period of time,” said VP of Sales Jim Miller.
Since celebrating its 5-year anniversary, Compass has continued to experience record growth in multiple areas.
Organic Growth Through Record Year
Compass operating units run autonomously even after coming under the company’s umbrella. But with Compass, each shop benefits from having the financial support of a larger corporation.
There has never been a better example of that in Compass’s history than 2025.
Compass has made equipment purchases at nearly all its machine shops this year. In most cases, those additions have been highly sophisticated machinery.
R&D Machine, Compass’s operating company in Oldsmar, Florida, added its first mill/turn machine. Along with the new type of spindle, the mill/turn arrived with a robotic loader/unloader, which greatly expanded the machine shop’s lights-out capabilities.
The shop floor at Quality Products & Machine in Charlotte, North Carolina is almost unrecognizable from a year ago. Most recently, Quality Products acquired a new high-powered large envelope, fiber optic laser and a brand-new CNC Mazak mill to greatly expand its capacity. In addition, the company has rearranged its equipment layout and started a passivation line.
Also, this year, Gray Manufacturing Technologies in Denver, North Carolina added a new 5-axis machine, and Douglas Machining Services in Winona, Minnesota acquired another mill/turn machine. Advanced Machining & Tooling in Salisbury, North Carolina and Tri-Tec Industries in Charlotte also added new equipment.
But arguably the most impressive equipment addition for Compass was at Bergeron Machine in Westford, Massachusetts.
“We’re one of the very first companies in the United States to put in a true multi-spindle, Swiss CNC screw machine at Bergeron,” said CEO Gary Holcomb. “That’s going to give us tremendous new capacity.”
Overall, Compass set a new company record in CAPEX investments during 2025.
A lot of the equipment the parent company purchased for its machine shops wasn’t in the budget at the beginning of the year. But the new equipment became necessary because of how fast the operating companies are growing.
“We were able to get Compass to sign off on these equipment purchases because of how well we are doing,” said Jim. “And then selling it to our ownership group made it easy because they already saw the growth and then the realization of significant growth potential with the investments in new equipment.
“These CAPEX investments weren’t just about keeping up. It was also about creating a multitude of new opportunities.”
Typically, a Compass operating company adds a new machine with the guarantee that it will immediately be used to near capacity to continue fulfilling customer needs.
But in 2025, some of its machine shops began to add equipment based on a forecast of where a need could arise in the future.
That came with some risk because an immediate return on investment wasn’t 100% guaranteed. The calculated risks, though, have paid off with current Compass customers even more satisfied. It’s also led to growth with both current customer relationships and expanded capacity for new customers.
“They help in any way I need,” Tri-Tec President Rick Loyd said of Compass. “They’ve always been there to help with anything I’ve ever asked. It’s never an issue to get anything I need. I value that, and our customers do too.”
There’s an extra benefit to Compass’ record-year in CAPEX. As the company continues to push its sister units to work together, each operating company has access to any of the machinery additions made throughout Compass.
For instance, Bergeron Machine might be the only Compass operating company with a Swiss screw machine. But any operating company, if needed, could offer that service to a customer through a sister company collaboration project.
“We’re a small shop, small building, small head count,” said Advanced Machining’s general manager Patrick Reynolds. “But we have available assets – larger buildings, larger head counts and larger companies to help us grow our market share with a specific customer.
“Our sister companies being able to help out gives us an advantage.”
Compass Expands Its Management Team
With the rapid growth at Compass, it only makes sense that the company would also add to its management team. In typical Compass fashion, the parent company has promoted from within.
Bill Canning, who was previously Vice President and COO, received a promotion to President in July. Previous President Gary Holcomb remains with Compass as CEO.
Furthermore, Advanced Machining President Keith Felts moved into a newly created role at Compass.
“I’m so, so happy that Bill and Keith have moved up to increasing their responsibilities within the company,” Gary said. “They are just great, great people.”
As VP & COO, Bill was already overseeing several of Compass’s operating companies. So, for some of the machine shops, not much has changed.
“It’s fundamentally the same. The most important thing is establishing a relationship with the leadership at each operating company,” Bill said in July. “But overall, since all the operating companies are led by great people, great teams, it’s not like we’re having to come in and figure out the puzzle and fix things. They are obviously mature teams.”
“I love working for him and working with him,” Gray Vice President Evan Grose said of Bill. “What he has brought to the table is another brother who thinks very similarly. That makes it easy for him and me to work on projects and think through things when those opportunities come up.”
Bill now oversees seven of Compass’s nine operating companies.
Keith is in his first new role in about four decades. He co-founded Advanced in 1985 and served as the company’s president for 40 years. Keith now assists all Compass operating companies as VP of Engineering.
“I think that was just a natural transition with our growth – to get somebody who is super sound technically,” Jim said. “But not only that, Keith also understands ERP systems and our customers. It’s been a natural progression, and he’s been great.”
Keith is putting that ERP knowledge to the test this month by helping Tri-Tec transition to Compass’ new ERP system.
But how Keith helps each operating company is specific to their needs. At Gray, he is a sounding board for Evan on business-oriented things such as quoting. At Bergeron, Keith has provided technical assistance with the company’s new Swiss screw machine.
Going forward, Keith will likely play a significant role during the transition at any operating company Compass buys.
“Compass acquires great shops. They aren’t broken. But there’s always areas for improvement,” Keith said. “I’ve ran a shop, so I can look at how a shop is creating their product, communicating with their customers, interacting with the employees, what kind of tools do they have in terms of machine tools, cutting tools, software tools and then get a pretty good feel for how we might improve that company, improve what they can offer to their customers, and then implement a plan.”
Another Summer Acquisition
It wouldn’t be a fantastic year at Compass without another company acquisition. Compass purchased Pocasset Machine on Cape Cod, Massachusetts in July.
Pocasset Machine is the ninth Compass operating company and sixth add-on acquisition. It was Compass’ first add-on acquisition since Bergeron in April 2023.
With Pocasset, Compass expanded the industries it serves.
“We like shops which are niche-oriented that serve a diverse, differentiated market with equipment specifically targeted for that segment,” said Gary. “Pocasset is focused almost entirely on making complicated, precision parts for underwater equipment, either submersible instrumentation or drones – autonomous underwater vehicles.
“They are specialists at making parts that serve a variety of needs under water. Most of our customers are close to Pocasset, in and around Cape Cod and Eastern Massachusetts. It’s just a terrific niche business serving a little known, but very exciting, growing market.”
Compass purchased Pocasset from the Kent Family. Al Kent acquired the company, which was originally a two-man tool & die shop in Waltham, MA in 1977.
Al’s two sons, Barry and Chris successfully ran the company for nearly five decades. Barry and Chris are remaining with Pocasset through a short transition and then retiring.
Compass hired Mike Kane in August to be Pocasset’s new VP and General Manager.
Keith visited Pocasset just after Compass acquired the machine shop to assess their current state. The information Keith gathered has helped Mike early in his tenure.
Barry has also helped Mike find his bearings.
“Mike obviously knows what he’s doing. I’m trying to get him comfortable in the way that we do things,” Barry said in September. “And I’ve said to the Compass people, ‘I know you’re going to have to make some changes. But the best thing you can do is make it look like there are no changes, at least initially.’
“So, the customers are comfortable, and the employees are comfortable. I think they have done that well.”
Through acquisition, there’s a lot of learning for everyone involved at Compass. But the result is always continuous improvement and enhanced service to the valued customers.
“I’m learning as much as I’m mentoring. I’m picking up a lot of information, and then I’m able to transfer some of these good things I learn to other members of the group,” Keith said. “With the Compass plan, acquisitions will continue.
“We’ll continue to interact with one another and keep getting better.”
Looking Ahead to Another Busy Year
There’s no rest for the weary at Compass. All nine operating companies always prioritize fulfilling customer needs.
With the new equipment throughout the Compass portfolio of companies, the machine shops will be able to fulfill and even exceed those needs at a faster rate.
Over six years, that’s almost become a given at Compass. But even though support from Compass has become expected, the operating company managers don’t take it for granted.
“I will certainly always be grateful for not only what Gray has afforded me in my life, but what Compass has given me as well,” said Evan.
The Compass management team plans to continue growing the company through horizontal and vertical diversification. Expansion into other types of metal manufacturing such as casting, forging, and stamping are possibilities too.
Compass’ operating companies love providing one-stop shopping. Gary and Jim both said its Compass’ goal to enhance that feature with additional offerings in plating, painting, and anodizing to have even more control of the entire process to lower costs and cut lead times for customers.
To accomplish that, Compass has its eyes set on more company acquisitions to grow its brand.
“I think our business model is super unique in the industry, and as a result, more and more people know about us,” Jim said. “We want to continue becoming a household name in the machining world.”
Moving into another market or two that requires mission critical parts is on the table for Compass as well.
With the pace Compass is growing, the sky appears to be the limit. There’s no telling where the company might be in another six years.
“We had a vision 6-7 years ago of building a multi-location, high precision CNC operation. But it was a dream,” Gary said. “None of us knew if our strategy of focusing at the high-end of the market with differentiated equipment and smart machinists would work. To my knowledge, it had never been done before.
“But we’ve pulled it off thanks to a lot of hard work, maybe a couple breaks along the way and some good decisions.
“I’m very proud to look back six years later and say, ‘That dream became reality.’”