AUBURN — After having worked as a senior marketing manager at Skaneateles Falls–based Welch Allyn, Inc. for the past 12 years, Victor Ianno is now the sole owner of Weaver Machine & Tool Company in Auburn. He acquired the business from the family of the late Ronald (Bucky) Weaver and started working there in September. […]
AUBURN — After having worked as a senior marketing manager at Skaneateles Falls–based Welch Allyn, Inc. for the past 12 years, Victor Ianno is now the sole owner of Weaver Machine & Tool Company in Auburn.
He acquired the business from the family of the late Ronald (Bucky) Weaver and started working there in September.
The purchase became final on Oct. 24, says Ianno.
Weaver Machine & Tool specializes in precision-made machine and tool products.
When asked if he was comfortable owning a business that specialized in products that he hadn’t dealt with in his career, Ianno said he believes business is business, whether it means selling widgets, metal parts, or medical products.
“I’m taking a risk,” Ianno concedes. “But I have people to help me.”
He spoke with the Business Journal News Network on Dec. 5.
Joe and Sharon (Shari) Artman, Weaver’s daughter and son-in-law, will work with Ianno as consultants for the next year as he assumes control of their former business.
Ianno declined to disclose how much he paid to purchase the business, but said he used a loan from KeyBank to help finance the acquisition. He also declined to disclose the amount of the loan.
Attorney Lynn Smith of the Syracuse law firm of Gilberti Stinziano Heintz & Smith, P.C. and accountant Richard Pascarella of the Syracuse accounting firm of DiMarco, Abiusi & Pascarella CPAs, P.C. advised Ianno in the transaction, he says.
Ianno’s search
Ianno had previously worked as an account executive for Mark Russell and Associates (which merged with Eric Mower + Associates in 2008); as a leasing representative at Pyramid Management Group; and as a senior marketing manager at Welch Allyn.
While growing up and attending college, he worked at his family’s company, Lakeside Printing in Skaneateles, which the Iannos sold to the Scotsman Media Group in 2001.
During his time at Welch Allyn, Ianno started craving something different.
“I got the itch probably four or five years ago to be my own boss again,” he says.
He started looking for potential business-purchase opportunities and enlisted the help of his father, Victor Ianno, whom the younger Ianno described as someone “who knows everybody.”
The Iannos spoke with local attorneys and bankers to see if they were aware of any local business owners who were hoping to sell their firms. If the father received leads, the son would arrange to meet with the owners for breakfast or coffee, he says.
“I bet you I’ve looked at 30 businesses over the last four or five years, and some of them were just a quick handshake and a phone call,” the younger Ianno adds.
He eventually developed a series of criteria that he used to determine if a given business might be good fit.
Ianno wanted to find a company that annually generated between $1 million and $10 million in sales; had between five and 50 employees; was a business with a sales and marketing “problem” and not necessarily an operational problem; had an owner who was interested in transitioning out in a “congenial” way and would be around to help him learn the business; and a business with more than 50 percent of [its] revenue not necessarily dependent upon the Syracuse retail market.
It was that criteria which led him to his discussions with Weaver Machine & Tool.
“I found a good family with a good reputation, stable customer base, stable long-term employees,” says Ianno.
And he believes Weaver Machine & Tool has plenty of “opportunity to grow” because companies “are always going to need” metal and manufactured parts, he contends.
After graduating from Liverpool High School in 1989, Ianno later earned a bachelor’s degree in operations management at Boston College before earning a master’s in business administration at the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School.
About Weaver
The 23,000-square-foot Weaver Machine & Tool currently employs 15 full-time employees, including Ianno.
When asked if he has plans to add more employees in 2015, Ianno replied, “I’ll add them as needed, as business conditions dictate.” he says.
Besides the company’s main building, it also has a 9,000-square-foot and a 7,000-square-foot storage barn on its property at 44 York St. in Auburn.
The firm doesn’t release revenue information, Ianno says.
Bucky Weaver founded Weaver Machine & Tool in 1972.
He grew it from a small machine shop to a company that specializes in high-precision prototyping, machining, production, assembly, and vacuum brazing of a variety of highly technical components.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com