When Dan Rose was looking for a new business opportunity in 1999 and asked one of his machine shop customers if he wanted to form a partnership to help grow the business, he didn’t get the response he was expecting.
With a career in the tooling industry under his belt, Rose was told by his friend that he might want to look at starting an anodizing operation in the San Diego area because the demand was so high.
“My first question was ‘What is anodize, and what is involved?’” says Rose, who a few months later opened Elite Metal Finishing in 2001.
Well Diversified Operation
Dan RoseToday, Elite in Oceanside, CA, is a bustling operation with 55 employees and two shifts performing Type II and III anodizing, electroless nickel, chem-film, paint, and powder coating.
“We are very well diversified,” Rose says, as his customers come from the medical, electronics, automotive, industrial lighting, golf, aerospace, and defense industries.
Rose’s trek to the finishing industry took a very circuitous route. He started in the metal distribution business out of college in 1977 with Kilsby Tube Supply in City of Industry, before a job transfer in 1985 took him a bit south to San Diego. He left the company in 1987 and started working for a cutting tool distributor, but two years later, he started his own cutting tool distributorship — Rose Tool & Supply —in his home garage and a year later leased a small industrial space.
Things took an unfortunate turn when in 1995, he merged his company with a local competitor, only having to leave four years later in what he calls mismanagement of company funds and unscrupulous business activities by one of the partners.
Fast Growth and Expansion
President Dan Rose and Steve Parkhurst, Director of Quality and Facilities.Searching for another business, that is when he inquired with one of his former machine shop customers if he would be interested in forming a partnership and letting Rose help him grow his business.
Once Rose figured out what the anodizing industry entailed, he formed Elite Metal Finishing in June 2001 and has never looked back.
In fact, three years after opening his business, he and his wife closed escrow on a new building for their business.
“It was 100% funded from the profits of our metal finishing business,” Rose says.
The success of Elite Metal Finishing is emblematic in the business’ motto” “Quality Never Compromised.” Rose says it all goes back to the three top issues they heard from their customers about previous finishers they worked with:
- Frustration with poor quality.
- Frustration with false promises.
- Frustration with lack of communication when problems arise with their order.
Partnering With Customers
“We do a great job of partnering with our customers starting with meeting with them to discuss their particular parts and strategizing together on the best ways to meet their requirements,” says Susan Russo, Elite’s General Manager. “We attract business from customer referrals in addition to daily inquiries through our website. It’s easy to retain business when you spoil the hell out of them. It’s part of our culture.”
Steve Parkhurst serves as the Director of Quality and Facilities at Elite, and Francisco Bautista is the facility’s Production Manager.
Rose points out that two of the first three employees that started with him in 2001 are still with Elite: Rose Bautista and Eva Martinez.
“I hired Rose’s son Francisco as a shipping clerk in 2006 when he was 19,” Rose says. “Now, he is our production manager.”
Miles Chemical has been supplying Elite Metal Finishing for the past 15 years, and Dan Zinman, Miles’ Vice President of Sales of Marketing, says he is always impressed with how Rose runs his operations and manages his team. This includes business coach Jim Castiglia, HR service provider Insperity, a quality consultant, and bi-lingual employee training.
“I think what Dan has done real well and sets himself and company apart from others is utilizing professional resources for his and his organization’s development,” Zinman says. “Almost every time I visit Elite, I make it a point to sit down with Dan to hear what he is doing with these resources. It is impressive.”
Adding Black EN, CeraKote, Laser Engraving, Tumble Deburring
Frank Bautista, production manager; Suzan Russo, general manager; and Rose Bautista, customer service manager.Elite has added process over the last few years, as black electroless nickel, CeraKote, laser engraving, and tumble deburring have been added. When the laser engraving room was added in 2016, Elite also expanded and remodeled their front offices too and added second-story offices, and a conference room.
Rose says the future is very bright for Elite Metal Finishing, and he is amazed at how far things have grown in just 20 years.
“Our customer base is growing with substantially larger accounts due to our reputation for doing quality work,” Rose says. “I believe the complexity of work we will receive will be greater and will generate higher revenue for us.”
