Growing Rockford machine shop to move into new building that nearly triples its size

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A growing Rockford machine shop is preparing to move into a new building that nearly triples the size of its current operation.

425 Manufacturing closed on the $1.9 million purchase of the former Triangle Metals building, 2500 Harrison Ave., earlier this week, according to records filed Tuesday with the Winnebago County Clerk & Recorder’s Office.

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It’s the third building, each progressively larger, for the eight-year-old manufacturing business founded by Mike Thomason. The company employs 19 people and Thomason said he expects it will add five to six workers in the next three years as it grows into the space.

“We’re not trying to grow fast,” he said. “We just are.”

The company now operates out of a 16,300-square-foot shop at 5004 27th Ave. Its first building was a roughly 5,000-square-foot space in Pyramid Industrial Park. Thomason hopes to occupy the new space by the end of the year or early 2024.

Thomason started the company after working at the family shop, Thomason Machine Works, for about 20 years. He broke off with a focus on mining and drill parts that accounted for less than 2% of the family business’s sales at the time, he said.

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Now, he said 2023 is on pace to be a $4 million year for 425 Manufacturing, which supplies a variety of parts for companies such as Fairbanks Morse in Beloit, Collins Aerospace, Accuride Wheel End Solutions, Greenlee and others.

It also has a hand in unique projects such as a partnership with Burpee Museum of Natural History to design and build a full-scale stainless steel fabricated, welded and CNC machined replica of Jane the dinosaur.

“Everything we do seems to grow,” Thomason said. “We’ve been anywhere from 10-20% growth the past eight years, and it just keeps going and going.”

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Some of the companies biggest growth is in the mining and drill industry, where it provides after-market replacements for Epiroc, Sandvik and Furakawa parts. Thomason said they can often provide prices more than 20% cheaper than the original manufacturer, and they keep $1.5 million in inventory on the shelf so they can quickly ship it out to customers.

“We carry in many ways a lot more inventory than the OEMs carry,” he said. “We next-day air stuff every single day.”

The company also prides itself on giving back to the Rockford community through donations to the SM&SF Club’s Kick-in for Cancer fundraiser, blood drives and working with local students for Manufacturing Day.

425 Manufacturing will lease its existing building once its move is complete. In the six years that the company has operated from that site, Thomason said they have added new side and overhead doors, new office space, siding, paint and LED lights, among other renovations.

“In the six years we’ve been here it’s gotten better every single year, so it’s move-in ready the second we move out,” he said.

For now, the new building on Harrison Avenue is too large for the company, which will only use one-third of the space to start.

But given the company’s growth, “I think that’s only a temporary thing,” Thomason said.

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas