Ranking fifth on this year’s list of the Top Family-Owned Businesses in NH, with revenue of about $200 million, Hitchiner Manufacturing continues to innovate and grow while keeping true to its roots.
And those roots run deep. While three generations of the Morison family have owned the Milford-based company for the past 65 years, the family has lived in NH sinced 1749. And their business, casting, dates back thousands of years when artisans used wax castings to create jewelry and other items, says Hitchiner Chairman John Morison III.
Hitchiner produces high-volume castings and casting-based subassemblies and components for a variety of industries. It creates products for an array of applications, from medical tools to jet engine parts for such companies as Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce and General Electric.
The company employs 1,670 people at four manufacturing facilities: the Ferrous-USA and Gas Turbine divisions in NH and two facilities in Mexico. It also operates a research and development subsidiary—Metal Casting Technology Inc.—in Milford. Hitchiner recently completed a 42,000-square-foot, multimillion-dollar expansion at its Milford headquarters, named after John Morison II, that is allowing the firm to further automate its manufacturing. And when the company says it produces high volume, it’s not exaggerating. Its Mexico facilities have produced up to 130,000 pieces a day for clients, Morison says.
Morison’s grandfather acquired half of the company in 1949 with his son when it was located in the Manchester Millyard and had hit a rough patch. By 1952, the family owned the entire business. “My grandfather was frustrated that New Hampshire’s manufacturing base seemed to be eroding,” Morison says.
The company thrived and, by the 1960s, it designed and built the first mechanized investment casting plant. Hitchiner was an early entrant in the global market, inking deals to license technology in Scandinavia, Finland, the United Kingdom and France in the 60s, and eventually opening a plant in Mexico.
But growth has come with a price. “It’s becoming increasingly difficult for us to make the argument (that manufacturing) should be in New Hampshire, primarily because of the cost of energy. We decided to [expand] here in spite of the energy cost,” Morison says, noting that the company has defense contracts that require products to be made in the United States. The NH operation, adds his son, John Morison IV, “is the center for our gas turbine operations.”
Morison IV, who joined as an internal controls auditor after graduating from Northeastern University in 2009, is the only other family member at the firm. Since joining, Morison IV has taken on an engineering training program and is now entering a leadership-training program while pursuing his MBA. “I strongly believe in the purpose for which my great-grandfather and grandfather acquired the company—to provide healthy employment opportunities and build a sound economic base in the state of New Hampshire,” Morison IV says.
One of the company’s goals is to automate more of its operations, and it is working with area colleges to train its workforce for the transition. “It’s not to replace labor, but to reduce variables in the process,” Morison III explains. Adds his son, “We want them to transition from physical jobs to CNC machining, maintenance roles and supervisory roles.”
And while he is no longer active in the daily operations, John H. Morison II, at 100 years old, still keeps tabs on the company through a weekly lunch with his son. “He asked someone recently, ‘John is pretty young. Do you think he knows what he’s doing?’” Morison III says, laughing. Morison IV adds his grandfather always wants to know what the competition is doing.
“We’ve been able to adapt to meet needs in a lot of markets. It’s the basis for our success, which is why my father always asks me, ‘What are you working on next?’” Morison III says.
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