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Patriot Antenna Systems
Sometimes combining two successful companies results in something less-than-the sum of their parts. Lack of coordination and loss of focus are two of the biggest challenges when companies unite. However, two Michigan firms are showing us that by joining their operations, focusing their effort and diversifying their vision, they have become a leader in the specialty antenna industry.
Almost from its inception, Patriot Antenna Systems held innate competitive advantages. The Albion-based satellite manufacturer and distributor was founded on a unique business philosophy that allows the company to operate in a highly-diversified niche with 100 percent self-sufficiency.
Patriot antennas are custom designed for applications across four major industries: military, broadcasting, radio telescope and consumer satellite. The company does everything in-house, from concept design and engineering, to prototype and production, to sales and shipment.
Two Into One
The company was founded in 1992 by Michigan natives Jeff Mathie and Gene Sorgi. Both had their own companies at the time. Mathie was a distributor of satellites and antennas and Sorgi was a manufacturer. They maintained their separate companies as well as Patriot until 1995, when they joined forces with a vision to combine their assets into a one-stop shop. By manufacturing its own products, Patriot minimizes its reliance on vendors and maximizes its cost control.
Mathie and Sorgi, who now respectively serve as president and vice president/director of manufacturing, took an aggressive stance early on. With their manufacturing advantages offering buoyancy, they set out to eliminate competitors and expand their product line with a series of acquisitions—a strategy that has also provided Patriot with a rich and deeply experienced employee pool.
“We’ve been able to cherry-pick not only the products out of those companies, but also the best people,” said Mathie. “So we’ve been able to hire a lot of people from out of state and bring them into this area. That’s allowed us to really get the ‘know-how’ of not just the products that they manufactured, but get a very knowledgeable person in the satellite market.”
Specialized, Yet Diversified
Patriot is one of only four companies in the world with such a broad range of products in the antenna market. It relies heavily on consumer satellite products and holds 90 percent of DirecTV business in South America alone. The broadcast media industry remains a key component of sales. Patriot recently won a contract with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with which it designed a deep space radio telescope for use in the Mars Initiative project and lunar exploration.
Patriot has also acquired the rights to produce a mini-helicopter camera system, originally designed for use in filmmaking. It still supplies the helicopter’s parent company in the film industry, but has also married that product with its communications technology for use in military operations, homeland security and for applications such as pipeline monitoring.
Mathie says while Patriot remains focused on its core technologies, the ability to provide such diversity among products has paid off. “In the event that one business or one area has been more competitive, we’ve had antennas for the other sectors that have grown in size. So having that balance in our company has been really good.”
Such forward thinking has always served Patriot well and the company is continually relying on innovations to keep its products in demand. A spin-off company, Patriot Solar Group, was recently created to produce and market a satellite dish for renewable energy, a product Mathie describes as revolutionary. It utilizes satellite tracking abilities to follow the sun, maintaining a constant energy source that can reach 600 to 700 degrees. This technology will have many applications, from instant fresh water in the form of steam to the use of fiber optics to filter natural light through a building. Mathie predicts that within five years, Patriot Solar Group will be more successful than the rest of Patriot’s current antenna business combined.
“With the direction of the oil and energy costs that are currently out there, there has to be a lot of emphasis at this point on alternative energy,” he said. “We feel we have a product that has not been seen in the market. And we have the expertise in high-production manufacturing of tracking antennas. Whether it tracks a satellite or whether it tracks the sun and reflects it, it’s basically the same concept.”
Self-sufficiency, aggressiveness and innovation are key ideals and practices that set Patriot apart from its global competitors, placing this Michigan-grown company among the world leaders in its industry.
To learn more about Patriot, visit www.sepatriot.com.