A Success Story A Day: Advanced Tooling Inc.

Company: Advanced Tooling Inc.
Location: Mount Calvary (Fond du Lac County)
Founded in: 1996
What they do: Manufactures small tools with tip diameters as small as 0.005 inches, produces orders as small as three or as large as 1,000 parts and uses high-technology inspection equipment.
How they’re growing: Thomas Pankratz started Advanced Tooling in 1996 in the corner of his garage with a few manual grinding machines. After filling the garage, Advanced Tooling moved to the former fire station, then to its current location in downtown Mount Calvary. The company has grown significantly over the last decade and continues to do so. To accommodate this growth, the company invested $3.8 million to expand its facility by 12,000 square feet in 2012, and added production machines in 2013, with four more planned by 2015.