Sypris Electronics history

The corporate parent of Sypris Solutions, Inc., was formed in November 1983 as the Gill Family Partnership, a collaboration between the father-and-son team of Robert and Jeffrey Gill.

The Gills' new business made its first acquisition toward the end of 1984, an eight-story office building in Louisville, Kentucky.

By 1992, Group Financial Partners had more than 1,200 employees.

Group Technologies alone had revenues of $244 million in 1993, nearly doubling its sales and making it the world's fifth largest contract manufacturer in electronics.

Profits were more than halved to $5 million in 1994.

Group Technologies ended up losing $17.7 million in 1995, most of it in the form of a write-off for obsolete circuit board inventories.

Group Technologies' revenues slipped to $87 million in 1998, but the company was becoming profitable again.

Group Technologies was well placed to benefit from the surge in military and homeland defense spending that followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

In January 2004 it bought a plant in Morganton, North Carolina, and some manufacturing equipment from Dana Corp., one of its major customers.

In 2005 most sales were derived from the Industrial Group, which was made up of a single business unit, and included the truck component and assembly manufacturing operations, which alone counted for two-thirds of Sypris Solutions' net revenues.

"Dana Wins Sypris Contract Dispute," Europe Intelligence Wire, August 29, 2006.