1. Midstate Spring
Withit’sheadquarterslocatedinSyracuse,NY,Midstate
Spring is a manufacturer of custom precision springs
and wire forms. Alex Melnikow & Josh Kristoff recent-
ly met with MACNY Member Focus to answer a few
questionsaboutMidstateSpring’s keystolongevityand
success,andwhatsomeofthechallengesareinoperatinga
manufacturing facility in New York State.
MACNY: What does your company make?
Alex Melnikow (AM): Midstate Spring manufactures cus-
tom precision springs and wire forms. Our manufactur-
ing strengths include tight-tolerance ground compression
springs, complex wire forms and torsion springs, and rapid
prototyping. We work with wire with diameters ranging
from .003”-.437”. You can barely see some of our springs,
while others stop trains.
MACNY: Where are your products sold?
AM: Our company began with a local focus, and current-
ly half of our sales are to New York manufacturers. We
expanded nationally and internationally, and now ship
throughout the country as well as to Canada, China, India,
Mexico, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
We are exclusively business-to-business, and serve OEMs
ranging from Fortune 500 companies to innovative
one-person startups. Our customers manufacture power
tools, valves, medical devices, firearms, aerospace and elec-
trical products, solenoids, railroad locomotives, lawn mow-
ers, and truck accessories.
Vice President Alex Melnikow and
Operations Manager Josh Kristoff
MACNY Member Focus
MACNY: How has busness been going for you?
Josh Kristoff (JK): Very well. We are benefitting from sol-
id growth with our core customer base. Growing strategi-
cally demands sustainability and scalability. Sustainability
drives us to answer “how will we stay relevant for the next
25 years?” while scalability asks “will this approach work
when we are doing 50% more?”
These two questions are powerful motivators for change.
We are pushing to do what is needed, rather than what is
comfortable or familiar. Our team is preparing to support
a new sales effort, and the pace is really going to pick up.
MACNY: What are some of the challenges you
encounter operating in NYS?
AM: I don’t believe in putting up barriers or making ex-
cuses for why we can’t achieve. Midstate Spring is fami-
ly-owned and has been in Syracuse for 75 years. We aren’t
going anywhere, and we accept that NYS has a high cost
of doing business. We look to overcome this with efficient
technology leveraged by expert spring-makers.
MACNY: What are some of the benefits by
operating in NYS?
AM: New York State has the kind of companies we want
to do business with. When we look around at local manu-
facturers, we find companies who have persisted by differ-
entiating themselves through superior quality, service, and
speed. Our business model is built around satisfying the
needs of a demanding customer.
It is also worth restating the benefits of being anywhere in
the United States that are so often taken for granted. We
have political stability, low corruption, stable currency, an
educated workforce, and the end market for many manu-
factured products.
June 2015 Page 14

2. MACNY: Why are you a MACNY member? What
service or resource do you most utilize?
JK: When I started at Midstate, our ownership guided me
to MACNY as the best place to engage with the local manu-
facturing community. Midstate was already a member, but
we doubled-down our efforts. We took advantage of some
of the paid MACNY consulting services and got our team
out of the facility to attend council discussions, training
sessions, plant tours, and networking events. We gained in-
sight from sharing our ideas and having them challenged,
and have incorporated some of the new ideas we have been
exposed to.
MACNY: Please feel free to add anything else.
JK: If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch a spring
being made, it’s fascinating. Take a look at our website
video sample box: http://www.midstatespring.com/sam-
ple or contact me to visit in person: joshkristoff@mid-
statespring.com.
MACNY: What do you attribute to your company
success?
JK: Our success comes from the team showing up every day
and taking great pride in what we do. Our facility is clean and
safe, our lights are bright, our pace is fast, and we expect the
best from one another. We make quality parts and genuinely
make our customers’ lives easier as their “Invisible Partner.”
In 2008, our team recognized the changing service needs of
our customers, so we launched the “Invisible Partner” ini-
tiative. It starts with quality and on-time as a given. For the
customer who knows what they want and when, we will re-
main “invisible” and out of their inbox. If design assistance is
required, we engage our expert technicians and engineering
team to solve our customers’ toughest problems. At the end,
we offer unique solutions that make it easy.
Lastly, it would be remiss not to mention our commitment to
technology, highlighted by the 23-axis wire forming machine
commissioned this winter.
MACNY: What are some of the top policy
issues of concern relating to success for your
business?
AM: My biggest policy concern relates to uncertainty com-
ing from regulatory decisions being delayed. We need to
know what the rules are at the start of the year. For example,
we breathed a sign of relief when we learned in December
that we would be able to take advantage of Section 179 de-
preciation in 2014. This rule allows accelerated depreciation
of manufacturing equipment, and we rely heavily on it to
help with cash flow while our equipment begins to produce.
We had to make our investment decisions without knowing
if the benefit would be extended. December is way too late
to decide tax rules.
Healthcare costs are another top concern. Every year when
policy renewal time comes, Midstate finds itself paying 10%
more for coverage that is slightly worse. Rising healthcare
costs are hurting everyone, and need to be addressed.
June 2015 Page 15