Micro Craft Inc. design engineer Scott Ralston installs a 300-horsepower motor in a one-third scale model of a V-22 Tiltrotor predecessor in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex wind tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center. All the hardware here was designed and built in Tullahoma, Tenn.
Contributed PhotoRather than jump ship, when the 55 employees at the former Alliant Techsystems plant in Tullahoma, Tenn., learned of a possible coming shutdown they decided to buy the company themselves.
At the end of March, employees at Alliant, or “ATK” as the company is known, closed a deal to become co-owners of Micro Craft Inc., saving their own jobs for now while putting their investments into their own futures, according to plant manager Jim Herron, 50.
Officials of ATK, one of the nation’s largest aerospace and defense companies with more than 18,000 employees in 22 states, told the plant manager a year ago that they were “going to have to sell the facility or shut it down,” Herron said.
“We had a couple of suitors that weren’t really working out so they were looking more at closing it than keeping it going,” he said.
Retirement funds into breach
After learning of the possible closure, Herron started studying employee-stock ownership plans and seeking advice.
“It went from there, and it’s going like gangbusters,” he said. Herron and the company’s 54 other employees started negotiating with ATK for a purchase, he said.
Micro Craft now continues the same work in manufacturing products such as scale models for research and development testing for military and space applications.
The Tullahoma plant in recent years was crucial in the development and construction of the X-43A scramjet, which broke the speed record for jet-powered aircraft in the Guinness World Records in 2005, reaching a top speed of about 7,000 mph, according to NASA’s website. The craft was part of a five-year NASA project, called “Hyper-X.”
Employees used severance packages and retirement plans to help fund the buyout, and Herron said ATK gave Micro Craft an advance on future work to help the new company get started.
ATK spokesman Rod Gibbons said he couldn’t go into detail about the transaction, but said the move is good for everyone.
“ATK divested this facility as continued ownership was no longer required to achieve our long-term business growth vision,” Gibbons said.
The Tullahoma plant provided ATK with “wind tunnel testing, flight and testing hardware and design and analysis capabilities,” he said.
“ATK worked closely with the employee owners to make a smooth and financially viable transition to Micro Craft,” Gibbons said.
He said the terms of the divestiture were not announced.
workers passionate
Don Walls has worked at the Tullahoma plant for 34 years, most recently as the plant’s manufacturing manager under ATK and now as a co-owner of Micro Craft. Walls said the work force is made up mainly of long-time, highly-skilled workers who have a passion for what they do.
But as the economy spiraled downward, Walls said, employees wondered how the small operation would fit with ATK’s plans.
Independence from ATK opens other options, he said.
“We thought we could get more business as a small business, especially since we were going to continue doing business with ATK,” he said.
Walls said the plant’s employee-owners are enjoying their situation.
“We all kind of work for each other,” he said. “I like it. We have the ability to chart our own course.”
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at 423-757-6569 or bbenton@timesfreepress.com