Cable, harness manufacturer fills niche for industries
If you're looking for cables and wire harnesses in Butler, JARA Manufacturing's got the hook up.
The Butler County-based company is owned by John and Pamela Romeo, and is a subcontracting manufacturer of electronic products, mainly cables and wire harnesses.
Their focus is not just on the product they provide, but to whom they provide it.
“Our whole deal is customer service,” Pamela Romeo said. “We provide a service, so we have to provide them excellent quality, 100 percent, and on time when they want it.”
It's that spirit which produces repeat customers in the form of businesses that vary in kind from medical to industrial to automotive to communications.
These clients come to JARA with drawings of a product they want made. JARA's Linda Saban looks at the blueprints, as well as a list of materials, and estimates the amount of time it will take to create that product.
Sometimes, the clients won't have a blueprint or a list of materials. If that's the case, JARA will provide what is needed. In other cases, clients already will have the materials ready, and simply need JARA to manufacture the product.
From there, JARA procurement specialist Sara DeSimone gets a quote on how much the materials will cost. Then, JARA manufactures and tests the product.
“Everything we do is 100 percent tested,” Saban said. “Even if (the clients) don't require it, we require it.”
While the products JARA creates vary, the company's strength lies in wiring harnesses and cables.
“When you think about a cable, it's not necessarily something you plug into a wall, a TV,” Romeo said. “Sometimes it plugs into another machine, and sometimes they're terminated differently; they have to hook into the equipment different ways.”
Romeo would know. She and her husband, John, have operated the business for 26 years. They founded JARA, which stands for John A. Romeo & Associates, in 1990.
Back then, John Romeo worked as a manufacturing manager and Pamela Romeo as a planner and scheduler for a different manufacturing company. They started their business out of their home in Gibsonia.
They kept the production facility in their basement, with John Romeo taking care of the manufacturing side and Pamela keeping the books and controlling inventory.
“We were ready to go into business for ourselves,” Pamela Romeo said.
At the time, John Romeo had 20 years of experience in manufacturing and manufacturing management, while Pamela Romeo had 10 years of experience in inventory and production control.
In reality, John Romeo had been making objects since he was 12, from amateur radios to model cars and airplanes. He gained experience in electronics when he joined the Air Force in 1968, and developed an affinity for that, as well.
“I really enjoyed it,” John Romeo said. “I knew one day I would go into business for myself. I wasn't exactly sure what or how. Timing is everything, and things just came together in 1990.”
JARA acquired its first contract early in 1990, and its second in May of that year, allowing John Romeo to leave his day job and pursue JARA full time.
In 1992 Pamela Romeo followed, and soon after that JARA made the move to Butler and acquired three part-time employees and five subcontractors.
Additional employees were hired throughout the years, including a controller and accounting clerk in 1995, a manufacturing manager in 1997 and a quality manager in 2002.As JARA grew in manpower, the company also grew in space. John and Pamela Romeo initially moved the company into a 1,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in 1992.While the facility remains at 890 Pittsburgh Road in Middlesex Township, it has since been expanded three times, from 2,600 square feet, to 3,000 square feet, and finally to 4,600 square feet.JARA had 50 employees in 2007, but in 2008 and 2009 several of the company's customers began outsourcing to China.“That's been a hard thing for us as a small business because we had a lot more business in the past,” Pamela Romeo said.Fortunately for the Romeos and their current 15 employees, the company has experienced a rebound in the past few years.“Maybe the economy is picking up,” Pamela Romeo speculated. “I think that's part of it. It's hard to say in a lot of different ways. It's hard to pinpoint one thing.”Pamela Romeo became the sole owner of the business in 2010, and John Romeo became the company's vice president, handling sales and manufacturing as he had done since the company opened.This move allowed for JARA to be certified by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council in 2015. It's a move Pamela Romeo hopes to use as a marketing tool.“A lot of times with aerospace and transportation companies, they sometimes have a quota and need to have so many contractors that are a minority, and since we're certified as a woman-owned business that would count as a minority,” Pamela Romeo explained.The Romeos also hope to continue JARA's foray into subcontracting for a prime contractor who interacts with the federal government. The company already works with one prime contractor.While that's a tall order for a small business, Pamela Romeo believes JARA is up to the task.As she put it: “For a small company, I think we have a lot to offer.”
