In early 2017, I had the privilege of meeting the leaders of Isolate Extraction Systems (IES), Kelly Knutson and Adam Knight. As the founder and CEO of P1 Industries – an AS9100 certified contract manufacturer – we hunted them down at a tradeshow in Seattle, determined to build a relationship with their fast growing company so we could manufacture most of their outsourced components.
After the tradeshow, it was difficult to get in front of them as they were growing rapidly, focused on product development and commercialization and had more important things to handle than take the calls from an aggressive contract manufacturer.
After trying to connect for several weeks, we finally got on the phone with one of the sales leaders at IES who coincidentally, was from the same upstate NY town that we are located in – more than 1,800 miles from IES. He expressed how much he missed Poland Spring water (a staple of our area), so we sent him two cases.
This further opened the door to a relationship between our two companies that would result in a transformative partnership. On the one hand, IES is a leading edge product developer, bringing advanced technologies to emerging markets. On the other hand, P1 is an aerospace certified contract manufacturer, producing precision parts and assemblies for our nation’s military, base and renewable energy infrastructure in addition to critical processing industries.
In late 2020, Kelly and I determined that bringing our two companies together would create a transformative business model that would provide the depth of talent and expertise to lead in the Supercritical CO2 extraction market. Our combined vision has evolved to become the leading, highest quality technology provider for our target markets.
We began integrating our engineering teams, production and manufacturing resources in addition to our sales and marketing strategies to create a dominant equipment maker with the highest levels of quality, ingenuity and automation, while providing aerospace quality machines at the lowest possible price and shortest cycles.
Our vertical integration efforts are paying off. The IES team is focused and committed to developing next generation technologies, improving the reliability and lifecycle of our current product portfolio, while at the same time enhancing our customer’s experience through extraordinary service and responsiveness. The P1 team is optimizing and leaning out manufacturing and supply chain systems, reducing costs and improving overall product quality.
Together, P1 and IES are creating a 21st century icon: world class technology and service combined with advanced manufacturing to produce the most reliable and cost effective solutions for our markets.
Our relationship began more than four years ago with our team targeting IES and their leaders to build a simple supply relationship and has evolved into fully integrated partnership that is transforming the markets in which we operate.
IES ingenuity combined with P1 aerospace quality. An integration for the ages.