Headquartered in Chatsworth, California, Expand Machinery, LLC provides high-quality, efficient manufacturing services for industries from aerospace and medical to automotive and more. Originally established as Ganesh Industries, LLC, the company underwent a major rebranding effort in 2019, changing its name and revitalizing its position in the marketplace. Today the company has three primary product lines: Genturn, Genmill, and its flagship line: Ganesh.
Under the Genturn brand, Expand Machinery offers multitasking computer numerical control (CNC) Swiss screw and Swiss lathe turning machines. This line is equipped with an assortment of auxiliary attachments such as spindles and shaping tools that enable operators to perform a range of turning procedures. The Genmill brand provides CNC vertical machining centers and 3-axis to 5-axis milling systems that come standard with 12,000 RPM direct drive spindles. These high-speed systems can greatly increase the output rate and improve the workflow of many machine shops.
For customers who are interested in the high quality of Expand Machinery equipment, but do not require full CNC, the Ganesh line offers manual toolroom CNC lathes and milling machines. This brand contains knee mills, bed mills, and lathes that combine the simplicity and ease of manual machining with the quality and service that comes with any Expand Machinery product.
In addition to providing this wide array of machining products, Expand Machinery also services the equipment after the sale. “We don’t just sell this equipment: we service it; we do after-sales service; we have extra parts for the customer, and we also do application training wherever needed. These quality services are all under one roof, so we sell the equipment but we also have the things surrounding that to support the machines too,” says Ravjeet Singh, general manager at Expand Machinery.
The company was founded in 1985 under its original Ganesh name to present the highly competitive manufacturing industry with the most efficient machining tools possible. From its beginnings as a small family company, the business grew very quickly by focusing on supporting the customer’s needs first. Expand Machinery now has a 15,000-square-foot production facility and 40,000 square feet of warehouse space.
In 2015, the company pursued a partnership with an investment group that was, unfortunately, not successful, and this led to the name change in October of 2019 as part of restructuring the business. “That’s how the name Expand Machinery came about. It’s the exact same product line, the same machines, the same everything, but due to legalities and liabilities, the name was changed to Expand Machinery,” says Ravjeet. The revival received a positive result, and the company’s reputation for customer service prevailed in the machining market. The only setback was timing since shutdowns from the COVID-19 pandemic would occur in approximately six months from that time.
The family atmosphere in the workplace environment was one of the key focus areas in the restructuring initiative in 2019. The investment group that is no longer affiliated with the company had tried to transform the team into more of a corporate organization, and this is what Expand Machinery believes went wrong. Since the beginning, the company has highly valued its family atmosphere and its service-focused approach toward customers, vendors, and suppliers. Fortunately, the team has been able to return to its former ways and maintain its close-knit foundation.
Expand Machinery now has a smaller group of employees since the pandemic began, with fifteen people across the production team, sales, management, and the ownership. It expects to build its numbers back up soon as businesses across the country are finally ready to restore their operations. Part of the reason the company has been able to maintain its team during the erratic year of 2020 is that its business shifted more toward the distributor network versus direct sales. Before last year, Expand Machinery did have distributors throughout the country, and that network has now become its primary source of revenue.
“The pandemic, of course, hit everybody in 2020. We were lucky that we had a very good existing customer base, and one industry which was booming even during the pandemic was gun manufacturing. A lot of our machines do sell in the gun manufacturing business, so we definitely had a good run even with the pandemic,” says Ravjeet. “But overall, we were down approximately twenty to thirty percent.”
Luckily, most of the manufacturing industry is picking up again, and Expand Machinery is already seeing an increase in business in the first quarter of 2021. Most of the industries it works within are beginning to return to pre-pandemic levels of operation, which has translated to growth for the company. The aerospace industry, in particular commercial air travel, has lagged but the situation is expected to improve in the coming months.
During this readjustment period, the biggest challenge for Expand Machinery as well as businesses in many other industries is the increasing cost of materials and a severely backed up supply chain in the factories. The components required to make machines are delayed in delivery, which results in delayed manufacturing machines for customers, and the prices are skyrocketing at the same time.
Now that the market is growing again, Expand Machinery is excited about its recently launched key models. The Genturn-52CS Y2 is an 8-axis Swiss mill/turn center with a two-inch bar capacity that produces complex work in just one handling. The entire Genturn line is based on the done-in-one model, and this addition continues the theme.
A wide range of machining procedures can be completed on one machine, and the new product has received an overwhelming response from the company’s customers. Currently, customers are eagerly awaiting their new machine, as the company is running on backorders for that model.
The steadfast values and principles at Expand Machinery are how the business reached early success so quickly and how it recently rebounded with such force. “We always do what’s right for our customers, employees, business partners, vendors, and suppliers. Being honest, that’s pretty indispensable,” explains Ravjeet. Expand Machinery develops personal relationships with its customers, and this has helped it continue to reach the next levels of success.
As the industry steadily moves toward increased automation, Expand Machinery adds more robotics integration to its machines. The future of the manufacturing industry is exciting, and the company anticipates this development with enthusiasm. It has not set specific goals due to the still unpredictable nature of the market and supply chain but is prepared to be flexible and adapt to any challenges that may come its way. The path forward will be led by the needs and demands of its customers, and Expand Machinery prioritizes its customer-centric approach.
As the world returns to normal, so do the industries to which Expand Machinery offers its line of machining products. The company also anticipates more growth in the coming years. This year it has already seen twenty to twenty-five percent growth over last year’s numbers.
In the last thirty-five years, the Ganesh title and brand has developed a reputation for quality, and although the company has gone through some huge changes, it is determined to demonstrate that its values and principles are unwavering. With its roots as a family business, Expand Machinery has maintained a strong footing in the market because of its commitment to high standards for quality equipment and for the service it delivers to customers.
