“For almost 20 years, FOT has been a staple in the North Texas area,” FOT President Chris Springer said in a May 8 news release. “Joining forces with BlackHawk Industrial is a natural fit for us. The buying power coupled with vast product lines as well as FOT’s expertise will allow our customers a winning combination to stay competitive in our market. I am excited for our companies as well as our customers and look forward to continued growth for many years to come.”

Gene Gharky, who has worked at ATA and its predecessor for 32 years, said the new facility helps his job as a profile technician, which involves the early stages of tool building.

“This is definitely a big improvement,” the 67-year-old Rootstown resident said. “The lights alone, I can see a lot better. Because of our growth, we had to get a bigger building.”

The Akron facility and its 102 employees make 3.5 million to 3.7 million of the 8 million tungsten carbide burrs ATA manufactures annually and exports them globally, Diaz-Stringel said. ATA has two other factories in Europe.

ATA’s recent move to the new 60,000-square-foot facility in Ascot Industrial Park from a 40,000-square-foot building in nearby Cuyahoga Falls is all about the future, Diaz-Stringel said.

“Our number one priority is being the leading resource in the industrial space for saving customers money and being a catalyst for their success,” added John Mark, BlackHawk President and CEO. “With FOT’s team of experts and ours, we can offer new and broader services in another strategic market. We are looking forward to sharing our value proposition with the North Texas market and all our customers around the world.”

That uncertainty revolves around the imposition of new tariffs by the United States and other nations and talk of even more tariffs to come, he said.

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Horrigan noted that the business park originally was a racetrack that went out of business. Now, the repurposed site is a success story, he said.

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Tim Roberts, a quality inspector, said he’s been with the company for 18 years. He’s 38 and lives in Suffield Township.

ATA targets growth both in specific industries and geographically, he said. The company is eyeing South America as a new export market, he said.

BlackHawk Industrial accelerates expansion efforts with two key additions to its national supply chain solutions…

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The specialty manufacturer, which makes high quality tungsten carbide burrs and cutting tools used to finish metal and composite products, opened up its new facility on Ascot Parkway in Akron to customers and other guests for a few hours.

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Besides having acres-more space available for additional expansion, the Akron facility features open office plans up front and a clean, modern and well-lit factory floor at the rear.

“We started this journey a couple years ago,” he said. “This building was already here. With minor tweaks, we made it our own. We’re very happy with the result. We are set for the future.”

“This is the largest burr manufacturing facility in the world,” said Hector Diaz-Stringel, president of the Akron company. The facility’s history goes back to SGS Tool’s burr division, which Ireland-based ATA bought about six years ago.

“We have seen a strong economy, really going back to late 2017,” he said. “But we see a lot of uncertainty.”

“It allows us to grow,” he said. “When we were in Cuyahoga Falls, we were landlocked. ... We have a lot of aggressive plans for growth.”

“All this talk about tariffs and trade wars, that brings a lot of uncertainty not only for ATA but for the markets that we serve,” he said. “It’s hard to tell whether this robust economy we’ve seen the last few months is going to continue the next six months.”

“We export from this facility to more than 60 countries,” Diaz-Stringel said. “But we still have geographies that are not fully explored.”

ATA’s rotary cutting tools in turn are used by companies around the world to remove materials and in finishing products. Customers include contractors and subcontractors in automotive, aerospace, marine/ship building, oil and gas and other industries.

The company was founded in 2004. It moved its headquarters to Richardson in 2014, and to its current location there in 2020, combining office and warehouse space into one facility.

FOT’s product selection includes band saws, boring bars, burrs, carbide inserts, drills, end mills, face mills, hand tools, inspection tooling, measuring tools, reamers, safety, shop supplies, taps, threading dies, tool holders, workholding tools and more.

FOT is a like manufacturing tool distributor that serves a range of industry sectors that include metalworking, aerospace, oil & gas, automotive and job shop manufacturing — providing product inventory and cost reduction solutions.

“What we offer our customer is a solution that can finish any metal piece,” said Sophia Heslin, ATA’s group marketing manager based in Ireland.

Industrial and metalworking supplies distributor BlackHawk Industrial inked its first acquisition of 2024 in the form of Richardson, TX-based Factory Outlet Tooling.

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Reporter Jim Mackinnon covers business and county government. He can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ

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Besides its exported burrs, ATA Tools also imports raw materials, all of which can be affected by tariffs, he said.

In talking to open house guests, Diaz-Stringel said the previous facility was only about a mile away.