Tom O’ Hanlan has a spacious new corner
office, complete with a deck. The loft
is first-rate. It’ s a sign of good times for
his growing company and the Liberty
area where his business is based.
Sealevel Systems Inc. has renovated
the old Custom Assembly Services
building on S.C. Highway 93, which
was vacant for five years. The facility
is near Pickens County Commerce
Park, home to several new companies.
The new digs come on the cusp of landing
$10 million in government contracts.
“ We actually needed more space,”
says O’ Hanlan. The building was purchased
from Jerry Helgeson, who
founded what is now Easley Custom
Plastics, which is located just up the
road from Sealevel. “ He said, ‘ I’ ll make
you a deal.’ ”
Sealevel, maker of serial and digital
input/output products, is upgrading
from 15,000 square feet to 49,000
with plans to add 15 full-time associates.
Last year, military contracts
made up 10 percent of the company’ s
new customers.
“ Homeland security launched a
bunch of new products and the military
spending came to us because we
began doing more and more custom
work,” O’ Hanlan says.
The latest government contract is for a
synchronous serial interface to be used by
the U.S. special operations command
with their multi-band, multi-mission
radio. But communications, such as providing
monitoring devices for television
and radio antennas for client Clear
Channel Communications Inc., remains
Sealevel’ s bread and butter, according to
chief operating officer Ben O’ Hanlan.
“ Any moving part is what causes
most computer failures,” he says,
referring to fans and hard drives.
Sealevel produces a solution that
works off a flash card, creating a
rugged device for harsh conditions
with no moving parts.
Sealevel has also gotten into LCD and
resistive touchscreens.
“ Most of the touchscreens on the market
are one-piece units,” Tom O’ Hanlan
says. “ We took the concept of ‘ let’ s take
the LCD and keep it separate from the
computer and separate from the I/O circuitry,’
so if you want to expand, everything
is a modular piece.”
Currently, Sealevel does most of its
assembly through contract manufacturers
in Charlotte and Columbia, but
Ben O’ Hanlan says the company has
plans to bring that under one roof.
“ When you talk about running 25
pieces or 100 pieces, you pay a tremendous
premium in setup charges that I
would like to eliminate,” he says.
To bring in the necessary machinery,
Sealevel would need to make a
capital investment of $750,000-$1
million, Ben O’ Hanlan says.
“ We’ ve got a whole project team looking
into it,” he says. Sealevel has 20,000
square feet of warehouse space that is
mostly going unused. “ The numbers are
very strong. The equipment would pay
for itself in three years.”
The investment would call for another
10-12 jobs, Ben O’ Hanlan says. Sealevel
currently employs 40.
“ We are still waiting to hear about
the potential availability of sewer and
any incentives for existing businesses
in the county,” Tom O’ Hanlan says.
Sealevel will reach its sales goal of $12
million for the year, he says. Sales have
doubled in four years.
As Sealevel matures, it is finding it can
do more on its own. A big distributor that
sold Sealevel’ s products under its own
name has dwindled from 54 percent to 20
percent of Sealevel’ s business.
“ It’ s a tremendous discount if I sell it
direct,” Ben O’ Hanlan says.
Sealevel is building its own computers,
utilizing design control for companies
that have certified software.
“ We’ re building something with an
industrial-grade motherboard inside a
custom metal box with input/output
circuitry,” says Tom O’ Hanlan. “ They
need repeatability of design for five or
six years down the road.”
Sealevel’ s former location near
Pickens County Airport has been sold
to Jim Kaplan, owner of neighboring
Cornell Dubilier Electronics Inc.