March 2018 Power Manufacturer: Rock West Composites

From taffy to custom barn doors, we now move on to the world of composites.  Manufacturing is a broad and diverse industry, and through the Power Manufacturing Award, we hope to represent the many different industries that demonstrate manufacturing excellence.

Rock West Composites

Rock West Composites, our Power Manufacturer of the Month for March,  operates from a 66,000 sq. ft. office/manufacturing facility located in West Jordan, Utah. Rock West fabricates stock and custom composite tubes, plates, rods, angles, shapes, and connectors in addition to offering a variety of complementary products. They are a full-service supplier for composite products. Rock West offers services from initial engineering and product development to prototyping to low and high volume production.

Rock West manufactures products made from advanced composite materials such as carbon fiber, fiberglass, and aramids and have expertise in every imaginable composite fabrication process, including but not limited to roll wrapping, filament winding, bladder molding, silicone expansion molding, and vacuum bagging.

Employee Owned

Their highly experienced and entrepreneurial team is growing fast, and yet is still small enough to be nimble and maintain streamlined cost structures. Rock West’s motto is “Aerospace expertise. Commercial pricing.” They are proud to deliver daily on that motto.

Rock West is employee-owned, is self-funded, and has been growing at over a 20% year-over-year compounded growth rate. They re-invest in the business each year by expanding, purchasing new equipment, and hiring new talent to make sure they stay on the growth curve.

Industry Leader

Rock West is an industry leader because of their custom work, and they also have a thriving Ecommerce business selling manufactured product and other complementary merchandise: tubes, plates, panels, materials and manufacturing supplies. Industries such as aerospace and defense, industrial, scientific, oil and gas, consumer products and sporting goods all benefit from Rock West products.  They are proud to be AS9100D / ISO 9001:2015 certified. 

Advice from Rock West

Rock West CEO, Jim Gormican said, “Make sure you have a product that is differentiated in the marketplace. Hire great people and reward them for their performance. Monitor orders, sales and profit monthly and adjust as needed. Focus on innovation and solving your customers’ problems.”  This is great advice for anyone looking to find success–products and people are what make manufacturing happen and solving problems makes customers happy.

In addition to Rock West Composites in Utah, they have a composites manufacturing facility in San Diego. Rock West Solutions in Santa Barbara, CA, develops high-fidelity sensor systems.