ESD Journal - Xstatic

Both Neil Kinney and Burt Siegelman are co-founders of Xstatic, a leading manufacturer of ESD control products. These two envisioned Xstatic and the unlimited potential that lie ahead.

They started the company around 1995. Burt’s background was as an attorney, a Member of the Bar in the State of California. Neil worked in the Mortgage business and as a licensed CPA also in the state of California. The two of them were-above all else-friends for many years. Over lunch one day, they were talking about being tired of the service industry. They thought it would be neat to have a company with a product, a physical product, that could be shipped. So they went into the static control business but quickly found out – it was STILL a service business.

In the beginning Neil and Burt started networking and talking to everybody they could think of trying to collect ideas for a product and a business opportunity. Soon they came across a guy that had a flexible packaging factory producing military spec, medical, and food packaging bags. They proposed the idea of producing static shielding bags and produced a sample. After careful consideration, the company agreed and left Neil and Burt to do the market research on their own. They attended trade shows gathering ideas and information. They also went to the local electronics store and started looking in all the boxes. It was evident that all the boxes with components had static shielding bags surrounding them. They saw names of companies like 3 Com, Seagate, and Hewlett-Packard. They knew there was a chance to produce a product for this high tech industry.

Next, they bought a bag machine, put it in the facility, and started making static shielding bags. Soon they were on the market as a static shielding bag manufacturer . Satisfied customers started requesting other products from Xstatic.

So quickly they expanded the product line to include wrist straps, heel straps, garments, and mats so they could accommodate all static control requirements. Now Xstatic consists of fourteen bag machines and about forty employees. After a couple of years, Neil and Burt ended up buying out the whole bag factory.

Over the next 5 years, the business grew very rapidly, partly due to the fact that they service customers with care and consideration. Xstatic manufacturing plant is now around 15,000 square feet with fourteen bag machines. But they still try to run the business as though it’s a personal service business.

Xstatic grows relationships on a very personal level with the customers and tries to make each one of them feel important and special. They also try to accommodate customer's special requests like for instance how they want a packing slip, how and when they like to be invoiced, or even how they wish to be contacted.

Xstatic tries to conduct business in accordance with exactly what the customer wants and yet still keep that fine balance of not overwhelming them.

Neil and Burt like to think of the business as a low tech – high tech business. They understand the concerns of static and the way to ground or shield the products. And on the same token, they can support the high tech industry that has unlimited growth potential.

About 40% of the business is now export. There is a warehouse in Singapore that is used as a hub due to recent business in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Singapore, even the Philippines. Xstatic recently received the California Export Achievement Award from the Governor of California, Pete Wilson. The award is recognition for growth in export. Xstatic also received the Exporter Of The Year award from the Pacific Trade Magazine.

Xstatic is now producing a new patented static control bag. It has a clear antistatic poly exterior, with a static shielding bag interior that is made as one bag. The idea behind the bag was that a sensitive device such as a memory module could be placed on the inside of the static shielding bag with a piece of sales literature on the outside, but beneath the antistatic polyethylene, so the sales literature can be seen yet not interfere with the product.

By: David Ruzga