Frances Brunelle, President of Accelerated Manufacturing Brokers, shares her story with us of how the company got started– and key insights into her field!
Danny:
Okay, well, welcome today's episode of IndustrialSage on our Executive Series. I have the extreme pleasure of talking to Fran Brunelle, who is the President of Accelerated Manufacturing Brokers. Fran, thank you so much for joining me today on IndustrialSage.
Frances:
Danny, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you today.
Danny:
So Fran, so tell me a little bit about your journey. How did you get to where you are today?
Frances:
(laughs) Okay.
Danny:
I know it's a little question, right?
Frances:
Yeah, a little question with a with a big answer. So I actually started my journey in servicing the manufacturing community, believe it or not, as an industrial auctioneer.
Danny:
Oh, wow.
Frances:
Yeah. So we were helping manufacturers exit their business when there was some sort of need to exit. Sometimes there was a medical issue. More often than not, it was that they were in financial trouble. And the auction process is an accelerated way to exit from a company. But interestingly, the companies that were buying the manufacturing equipment for us were growing thriving manufacturers that were consistently trading out their pieces of equipment for a newer piece, the more modern piece, right? And it was at their behest that we began our journey in the M&A field.

So one of our longtime buyers came to me and said, "I've just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and you can sell my company." And I said, "I love you, Scott, but I don't do that." And he said to me, "Yes, you do, kid, you just don't realize it yet." And he said, “Think about it! Everyone that you're marketing to are growing manufacturers, they're likely buyers of my company.” And so I very reluctantly agreed to take on that project, sold the company in record time, had three offers for him to choose from.
Danny:
Wow.
Frances:
And PS, he beat the cancer.
Danny:
That's awesome, that's the best part of the story.
Frances:
Yep, he beat the cancer he left, he lives in the Carolinas now, and owns a bakery with his wife. The wife said, "Hey, it's my turn now." After it was all said and done. So I really didn't… we did not immediately continue in M&A work, we were the auction time. So this was the 1990s, think about how manufacturing was leaving to Mexico, to China in that time period, we were so busy, had more business than we knew what to do with. But that same thing happens again where a buyer came to us and said, "Hey, I need to sell my company." In that case, it was a company that had taken on more orders than they had the ability to produce.
Danny:
Oh, yeah.
Frances:
Yeah, and so it was a unique problem. And we had to marry them with someone with massive production capability almost instantly, or they would have lost the business. That project we sold… It was a Charleston, South Carolina based company that we sold to a buyer up in Rhode Island. That project was so much fun to work on.
Danny:
What made it so fun?
Frances:
Oh, the characters involved.
Danny:
Okay.
Frances:
And that's a whole 'nother story. But I think at that juncture, I said, "Okay, I really want to do this when I grow up." And for a very long time, we ran two divisions, both auction and acquisitions. But eventually we grew. The M&A side grew over 400% for three years running.
Danny:
Year over year?
Frances:
Yeah.
Danny:
Wow, okay.
Frances:
Yeah. And so at that juncture, we just,