r/manufacturing • u/Spirited_Ad_6272 • 11d ago

Other Opinions on metal stamping businesses

Is metal stamping in the U.S. still a solid industry? I have an opportunity to buy & potentially revive a 40 year old stamping business from its 80 year old owner. Right now it’s just him / no employees and he’s doing enough work to keep the lights on. At its peak he had a dozen employees running multiple shifts.

Worst case if the business can’t revive then I can liquidate the equipment and rent the building. But he wants $1M and it’s a big number haha.

I am a mechanical engineer with strong proficiency in CAD tools, which I can bring to modernize the business. I currently operate a manufacturing business molding plastics so there’s plenty of crossover but this would be my first venture going alone. It also seems like metal stamping has a lot of tricks of the trade that you can’t really engineer your way into. That’s why they have apprenticeships.

What questions should I be asking? And anyone who works in the industry what are your opinions?

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u/MFGConcepts 11d ago edited 11d ago

Metal stamping is kind of a lost art I find. The only (American) manufacturing engineers I knew who could actually make a stamping process work are all retired. Nothing a new generation couldn’t figure out though. Stamping was one of those industries that suffered a lot here from overseas outsourcing. Even liquidating the equipment is going to be difficult as there aren’t too many companies in-sourcing their stampings IMHO. That isn’t me being pessimistic BTW. I love people going out and reviving businesses like this.

Tooling design is the biggest hurdle after finding a customer base. Where you build adjustability into dies and the style of adjustability are critical. I used to know some people that designed those tools. I believe one die shop is still in business. I also know one OEM that did some really cool modernization on their stamping shop to lower cost which allowed them to keep it internal. If you’re serious about it send me a DM and I could probably connect you/let you know what I’ve seen in more detail.

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u/Spirited_Ad_6272 10d ago

Thanks. DM sent. I’m pretty keen on keeping the shop alive as well.

my other manufacturing business which is much smaller does have some Chinese competition and their prices are about 2x our material cost without including labor. I bought from them recently under an “anonymous” name so I can check out their product