Connecticut’s Long Island Sound is home to a number of equipment manufacturers for the Manufacturing Express to visit. Here in Milford, we paid a visit to a company that builds equipment to break things down: Indeco Breakers.
Indeco was founded 50 years ago in Bari, Italy as a producer of hydraulic hammers. Hydraulic hammers are attachments designed for equipment like excavators or skid steers that can be used to break hard rock, concrete, and asphalt. The applications for attachments like these are numerous. Everything from earthmoving, to demolition, to quarry and mining relies on hydraulic hammers like Indeco’s to break up hard material and do their jobs.
In 1990, the company founded their North America headquarters in Milford, Connecticut and has grown their presence here ever since. The AEM Manufacturing Express’s visit paid tribute to the 50 years in business and celebrated the hardworking men and women in Connecticut whose contributions bring these invaluable tools to American job sites all over the country.
The smell of fresh pizza from New Haven enveloped the grounds as the Indeco team enjoyed games of cornhole, tossed football, and played Wiffleball, which was actually invented in nearby Shelton, Connecticut. The Milford team was joined by their colleagues from other regions, along with many of their business partners and distributors. There is a reason Indeco has been around for 50 years, 36 of them here in Milford, and it’s the excellence of the people who work here. “Our employees are the backbone of this company.” said Ryan Murphy, Marketing Director at Indeco. “Our headcount is at 53 in the U.S., 45 of us report to this building everyday. 27 of those people have been with the company for more than 10 years. So we’ve been able to retain more than half of our staff for 10 years and we are very proud of that fact.”
The loyalty this crew has to Indeco is palpable. One of their employees with over 10 years of service is a Machine Shop Supervisor named Christian Hurtado. “My favorite part of working in manufacturing is everything that we can build with our hands.” he said. “The technology is very interesting to me.” Hurtado is such a big fan of working at Indeco that he has two separate Indeco tattoos on his arm: the logo on his bicep and the hydraulic hammer on his forearm. That’s a level of loyalty that other manufacturers would dream of.
The decision to open their North American headquarters here in Connecticut was no coincidence. This region has both advantageous proximity to the Ports of New York and Boston, and an excellent talent pool to pull from. Connecticut’s robust aerospace industry breeds a lot of manufacturing experience that Indeco can bring onboard. But it’s not just the existing talent that Indeco is focused on. The company also partners with Connecticut trade schools to provide mentorship, internships, and entry-level job assignments to students pursuing vocational careers. Many of them go on to join Indeco full-time once they graduate high school.
Indeco’s business may be focused on demolition, but the company itself is always focused on growth. That focus is what brought them to Connecticut 36 years ago, and it is what will propel them to success in the future. Indeco’s growth plan has three core areas: organic growth, new markets, and new products.
The excellence of their equipment makes organic growth easy. Customers will return to buy new equipment and recommend them to their peers. New markets are what brought the company to the United States, and now brings them to developing countries all over the world. And new products are how they expand their portfolio to better serve their customers in key businesses.
In the 1990s Indeco launched its line of plate compactors to support their construction customers. 15 years ago, they launched their ISS demolition shears for scrap metal processing. A few years ago, they launched their IMH mulching heads for land-clearing jobs. Indeco’s history is filled with innovations. The company thrives on identifying their customer’s needs, and then implementing the perfect attachment to solve their problem.
Indeco’s attachments are an integral part of the equipment demolition teams rely on every day. But behind every hammer, shear, compactor, and mulching head is a team of people focused on finding new ways to help their customers get the job done. For 50 years, that commitment to innovation has helped Indeco grow from an Italian hydraulic hammer manufacturer into a global equipment company. And with a talented workforce, a growing product lineup, and deep roots in Connecticut, the team in Milford is helping ensure the next 50 years are just as productive as the first.
