American Standard/Sunstone Merger: ‘We Want to Grow the Technology’

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

On July 13, 2023, American Standard Circuits announced the acquisition and merger of Sunstone Circuits. I-Connect007’s Nolan Johnson connected with ASC CEO Anaya Vardya and Sunstone Vice President and General Manager Matt Stevenson to discuss this new partnership. They detail what the partnership means for each facility, how it affects management, sales, and suppliers, but mostly what the new benefits for customers.

Nolan Johnson: Hi, Nolan Johnson here for Real Time with... I-Connect007. On the line with me today I have Anaya Vardya, the CEO of American Standard Circuits, and Matt Stevenson, vice president and general manager at Sunstone Circuits. Gentlemen, welcome. Your two companies issued a press release just this morning. Care to tell me what's in that announcement? 

Anaya Vardya: We're announcing that American Standard Circuits is acquiring Sunstone Circuits. So essentially, what we're able to do is join forces to enhance the customer value in the PCB industry. There are lots of great things that both companies do, and this brings us together.  

Johnson: Now your press release mentions, and I'm going to quote just a phrase out of it, “combined expertise and resources.” What's your vision for how customers are going to benefit from this new working relationship?  

Matt Stevenson: Well, from the Sunstone side, we are seeing an influx of industry knowledge, years of experience in the printed circuit board manufacturing industry, as well as a breadth of knowledge within that, from the metal cores and the different materials and emerging technologies that American Standard has a very long history with. At Sunstone, we get access to a lot of that, and we can benefit tremendously by brain sharing with the team at ASC. 

Vardya: I think it gives our customers at ASC another avenue in order to place their quickturns that they want to get very quickly; to take advantage of some of the automated tools that Sunstone Circuits has, where you're able to quote a job online, get a price, and place the order all in a matter of a few minutes; and you can also use their design tools. So, I think it's a much more holistic solution for our customers, and that's one of the things we were striving for. They also have the advantage of being able to utilize the Sunstone Circuits/Screaming Circuits partnership to place turnkey assembly orders if they want to, all online.  

Johnson: Well, with that in mind, what are the plans over the next 12 to 18 months for improving your value to customers? 

Vardya: Both facilities are today at a different level of technology. And long term, one of the things that we want to do is, we want to grow the technology in both the facilities. We want to be more of a total solution provider than we already are to our customers. I mean, today with the new acquisition, we can start at design; somebody can actually come to our website and design their circuit board and go all the way through turnkey assembly. We also have the opportunity to expand that more, where people who would like to have production orders today have to go to another facility somewhere else and are now able to do it with us. They can do their production orders either stateside at our Chicago facility or offshore as a lower cost solution if that's what the customer desires. In addition, we also have a global sourcing division that sources a large number of other products for our electronics space. So that's just another part of our total solution.  

Stevenson: I think we've been growing our technology, offering a total solution, and growing some capacity. We can be of great service to our industries and really enhance value for our customer base with the quickturn prototyping expertise at Sunstone, followed by the mid-volume, high-technology, and then the high-volume solutions potentially offshore. Also, within our customer acquisition strategies, being more digital and online, and now adding the feet-on-the-street and the customer relationship prospects that that ASC brought to the table. We've got a real good chance to be a real force in the marketplace—today and in the future.  

Johnson: How does this merger affect senior leadership between the two facilities in Oregon and Illinois? 

Vardya: Between the two companies, we have a ton of experience. I mean, we had a senior manager meeting yesterday and there are roughly 20 people around the room, and everybody has at least 15 to 20 years of printed circuit board experience. So, we have a whole bunch of experience on our team. Resources are very precious nowadays; our whole goal is to keep the senior management team intact. The only real change is that Matt is taking over as VP and general manager of the Sunstone Circuits division, so there will be continuity for your customers through this transition, absolutely.  

Everybody that our customers are dealing with today, they can continue to deal with those people. Nothing changes. The customer service organization stays as-is, the tooling organization is staying as-is, and so is the rest of the sales and marketing team on both sides. We don't anticipate anything changing in any of those areas. We will have consistency not only for our customers but also for our suppliers, and other stakeholders of our business. 

Johnson: Congratulations to you and thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me today.  

Stevenson: Thank you.  

Vardya: You're welcome, Nolan. 

Johnson: Here at I-Connect007, we will go deeper into this story over the next few days. I think there's more for us to discuss. For the time being though, I'm Nolan Johnson, this is Real Time with… I-Connect007, and thanks for listening.