Phenix Automation

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It was on October 8, 1984 that the flight of Phenix Controls ( the former name ) took off. Our mission was to use the partners' 75 years of combined Fluid Power and Automation experience to develop a "state of the art" enterprise which offered design, application and consulting services ; component specifications and local stock ; and "Value added" automation packages to all manufacturing sectors of upstate New York. As our logo symbolizes, the Phenix team has flown on a steady course of sales growth for these past 20 years ; and has established a quality reputation for engineering support and service. It has been the Character, Drive and Planning of our team, which has been responsible for the success of Phenix Automation. Character - The ability of any business partnership ( now a corporation with three active owners ), to survive 20 years together, means there must be a strong sense of trust and cooperation, plus a balanced sharing of responsibilities, ideas, risks, and rewards. Dan Marshall, Glyn Lipp and John Amrine have worked side by side for over 25 years. John Amrine started his automation career at Genesee- Mendon Air Hydraulic Sales in 1966 as a salesman. Dan Marshall, an owner and operations manager has worked with the team for 32 years and Glyn Lipp over 25 years. Mark Casper and Kim Kursten also got their start at Genesee-Mendon. The fact that two others on the team have been with us over 17 years and four more over 7 years shows a strong loyalty, a positive outlook, and a belief that we must be on the right track. We have also had a strong distributor relationship with 7 vendors for over 37 years, and six more for over 16 years, showing a clear understanding of the mutual needs and demands between the manufacturer and the distributor. To recap the history, it was in 1984 with the Genesee Mendon sales running at $5.2 million, that the ownership family decided to sell the company. The family sold the company, and the new owner quickly disposed of the senior management team in September. Six members of the former Genesee Mendon team started up Phenix Controls in October, and within several months were approached by nearly all the vendors that had been associated with Genesee-Mendon. Planning - Back in 1984, we recognized the trend that the heavy industries in upstate New York were either down sizing considerably or moving to the South and offshore. As we set our goals for Phenix, we made the conscious decision not to get back into high-pressure hydraulics and connector products. At that time we gambled that the future survival of business in our area was going to be light duty assembly, system integrators, specialized users, and OEM manufacturing that required engineering support, value added packages and automation expertise. Since we also realized that our economy was more dependent on exporting and world-class standards, we have continually made a point to add more products that are either manufactured overseas and /or have a worldwide quality reputation. ( Bosch, Piab, Sugino, Yamaha ). We set up a new fabrication and assembly division in 97 with the dedicated goal of designing and building kits and special packages with our Bosch aluminum strut line. Since our strategy states that we will not take on "system responsibility" or build complete turn key packages, our relationship with all the system integrators around the state is excellent. Our team, along with two CAD/design specialists, is currently working in our 17500 square foot West Ave building. The Drive to learn, train and compete is the key to our growth philosophy. We send all our people from sales, operations and finance to training schools every year. We believe that to compete with the national and local integrated suppliers and commodity price cutters, all our team must be able to offer an alternative approach with demonstrated superior product and