Future Die Cast and Engineering (FDCA), an aluminium casting and machining company in the privately-held Shelby Township of Michigan, has acquired Clarksville's Smithfield Manufacturing (SMI) and Conner Engineering, along with the local SMI facilities and operations on Kraft Street, said a news release. The acquisition makes the Midwest company one of the largest full-service aluminium casting groups in the region.

Consolidation and M&As have been the order of the day for quite some now. Actually, they always were; and it is imperative that enterprises, especially the small and medium-to-small sized ones, integrate horizontally to spread the risk and buffer themselves against volatilities in the macro economy. Manufacturing is one sector that has witnessed some big time volatility in the past one year. Commodities including aluminium traded on London Metal Exchange have undergone major price declines before rebounding only recently. .

To survive this downturn and to stay operational companies have looked at ways more than.  By integrating horizontally they have tried not only to mitigate the risk of dissolution but have also widened their scope for expansion.

With the new acquisitions, FDCA now consists of V-Line Precision Products located in Walled Lake, Mich., and Algonac Cast Products in Algonac, Mich., along with the local SMI operations plus facilities in Shelby Township and Clinton Township, both in Michigan, said the release.

SMI, which has been in operation at its present location on Kraft since the mid-1970s, offers a wide range of machines and tools including Swiss screw machines, mills and lathes, grinding, fabricating, thread rolling and precision prototyping abilities.

Future Die Cast is presently focused on developing a prototype and conducting a short-run production of high-pressure die-cast and sand-cast aluminium castings, and precision machining utilizing their more-than 18, four-axis CNC machining centres.

"FDC has been able to achieve this reputation largely due to the fact that FDC is fully-integrated," the release said. "FDC has the ability to design and build all of their own high-pressure die-cast dies, along with the ability to cast and machine the castings that are produced from these dies. All of this is done between two locations a block away from each other. FDC currently utilizes many engineering disciplines for the design and build of its products: 3D modelling, X-Ray, CMM layout, EKK mould flow analysis, reverse engineering and many more," the release added.

The acquisition of Conner and SMI brings FDCA’s total footprint in manufacturing to two states housing six facilities and over 200 precision CNC machining centres, spanning a total area of over 245,000 square feet, sources close to FDCA said.

"With over 200 associates and projected sales of over $20 million, the FDCA family is well-positioned for growth in the aluminium components marketplace," said the news release.