WALLINGFORD – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced that Holo-Krome is this week’s “Murphy’s Monday Manufacturer.” Holo-Krome, which was founded in West Hartford in 1929, manufactures a wide range of fastener products – like socket head cap screws, dowel pins, pressure plugs, shoulder bolts, allenuts, and hex cap screws, to name a few – that are made using cold-forming techniques and can withstand heavy industrial applications. Today, 86 years later, Holo-Krome is still based out of Connecticut, and operates out of a 200,000 square foot facility in Wallingford.

Each year, Holo-Krome produces more than 100 million parts for their customers in the aerospace, alternative energy, agriculture, automotive, bottling, defense, mining, and retail industries, and with the help of their 150 hardworking employees, the manufacturer has plans to expand. In fact, Holo-Krome experienced double digit sales growth in the last four years, and hopes to hire nearly 25 additional workers over the next several months. Holo-Krome’s management team has been working closely with several of Connecticut’s training programs and workforce services, including CT Works, Workforce Alliance, and the Connecticut Department of Labor, to help them recruit skilled workers to join the Holo-Krome team.

“Connecticut’s manufacturers, including Holo-Krome, are bouncing back from the recession and doing better than ever. Holo-Krome’s 150 workers make an astounding 100 million parts a year." said Murphy. “They’re expanding and hiring more and more workers to fill well-paying, meaningful jobs. Holo-Krome’s coordination with state training and work programs is a key to their success, and speaks to the portable of continuing to fund these programs."

John Brazil, HOLO-KROME’s Manufacturing Production Manager and Recruiter, said, “Our proactive outreach and recruiting efforts to acquire additional employees has been incredibly successful. In 2014, we brought in 38 new employees. Year-to-date 2015 has brought us 26 individuals, and 10 new hires in March alone. Our partnerships with a number of CT employment resources such as Workforce Alliance and CT Works Centers, not to mention unemployment offices, trade schools, and high schools have allowed us to gather a wide variety of candidates from which to choose, and essentially hire. We have also implemented a two-tiered formal training program which has allowed us to get our new hires up-to-speed and ready to produce a wide range of Holo-Krome fasteners.”

The manufacturing industry plays a crucial role throughout Connecticut communities, creating new jobs and accelerating our state’s economic recovery. Today, Connecticut’s 4,602 manufacturers account for 10.2% of the state’s jobs and 87% of the state’s total exports. In order to protect and grow manufacturing jobs in Connecticut, Murphy has introduced two pieces of legislation that aim to strengthen existing standards and prioritize the purchase of American-made goods, the 21st Century Buy American Act and the American Jobs Matter Act.