It was the summer of 2010. Flexografix was still recovering after the losses we experienced during the 4th quarter of 2008, which extended to the company's poor financial performance in 2009 and into 2010.

When I first joined the CFBC, Judy discussed the CFBC Partners and I asked her for an accounting firm recommendation.  My previous accountant was okay, but I realized I had more to learn after our downturn.  I needed better resources to learn from and to advise me.  Within a short period of time, Deanna Salo and Roger Reitz with Cray Kaiser were in my office.  I responded immediately to Deanna's combination of knowledge, experience, confidence, positive energy and sincere interest in helping me.  It was a good first meeting.  We established a plan, and I quickly felt comfortable engaging with Cray Kaiser as a client.

Deanna and Amy Langfelder made the conversion reasonably easy and instantly became my go-to team, extending to all financial areas of my life.  Since that first meeting, my company has expanded in the areas of our manufacturing capabilities, capacity and technical value to our customers.  Each time, before I made a major investment decision, I met with Deanna first and we strategized together.  I want to have the benefit of her experience, review the expected impact in a financial planning model together, and have another viewpoint to consider before moving forward.

In one example, thanks in great part to Deanna's involvement, Flexografix invested in advanced manufacturing equipment with the support of significant income tax savings to offset the costs.  Then, two years ago, we were approached by a $4B prospective customer to produce printing plates for a completely new product; a product no one in the world had much experience manufacturing for this application.

It required research and benchmark testing leading to the purchase of new, unfamiliar equipment and establishing a relationship with a new raw materials supplier.  Then came the manufacturing fire drill.  The equipment was literally hooked up on a Thursday and orders started pouring in the following Monday.  We learned how to both control and tune the manufacturing process of that new product, while filling orders on the fly.

The value of the pricing model Deanna had previously built for me was measured by the attractive profits that new product added to our Net Income in 2014.  And when my initial time studies proved to be inaccurate to our early production experience, Deanna cleared time in her schedule to quickly help me revise the original predictive model.  During that meeting she offered me input and confidence, which resulted in a successful price increase to our customer – to offset our additional manufacturing costs.

More recently, Deanna built a planning model so I could estimate both the business and personal financial impact of the new building my company is purchasing - before I made the decision to purchase it.  We also just completed a compensation impact model for our new Director of Sales, who started his career with Flexografix on February 16th.

Since working with Deanna and the Cray Kaiser team, I am better informed and make better business investment decisions.  I have made more money and have retained more of the Net Income my company has generated - making my business more valuable.  I want to point out that the fees my company has paid for the services I have received from Cray Kaiser are insignificant compared to the value this knowledge has provided to me and my business.

-Ken Pavett, Flexografix

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