Gator bites

Manufacturing executive Paul Cronen, like many of his peers, has a long worry list, from Chinese rivals to commodities pricing to the quality of the area labor force.

All that uncertainty makes his recent move — to spend $650,000 on a high-tech machine-based competitive advantage — a counterintuitive gamble on both his sheet metal fabrication company and the economy. The president of Bradenton-based Gator Stamping International, Cronen says the purchase is a spend-money-to-make-money reality of manufacturing.

“As a small company, a risk like this means more to us than some big company that can absorb it,” says Cronen. “But you can't think about the risk. If you did, you wouldn't buy anything in today's economy.”