Governor Malloy Tours New AFS Manufacturing Facility

By John Voket

Governor Dannel Malloy made a quick stop in Newtown Wednesday to meet local officials and principals at Advanced Fusion Systems, a high-tech manufacturing company that is repurposing a once-vacant office and warehouse complex on Edmond Road.

In the span of about an hour, the governor heard a brief presentation about some of the innovative products the company plans to bring to market; saw some of the vast spaces company owners intend to fill with equipment and as many as 500 highly paid employees in the next few years; and then heard about what he could do to not only help the Newtown start-up thrive, but also attract other similar ventures to the Nutmeg State.

Gov Malloy remained reserved throughout the tour, speaking little but seeming engaged and intrigued by what AFS and its Chairman and CEO, Newtowner William Joyce, President Curt Birnbach, and CFO Robert Powell had to say.

During the product orientation, Mr Birnbach reviewed some of the specifics about technology he invented and patented that could be marketed to utility companies, environmental remediation contractors, and for military or homeland defense applications.

Throughout the tour, Mr Birnbach and Mr Joyce flanked the governor, pointing to workers preparing spaces that would house various power-generating equipment, test labs, and manufacturing lines. The tour ended up in a long, narrow room filled with a seven-foot-high array of metal cabinets fixed with dials, lights, and buttons.

Mr Birnbach explained that each refrigerator-sized segment of the device would act like individual tiny circuit breakers in a household electrical panel, and that the sheer size of the array corresponded to the amount of electricity the plant would be capable of generating at any one time. Enough electricity, Dr Joyce added, to power virtually all of Newtown or a city about one-third the size of Waterbury.

But some of the best information came after the tour, when the governor returned to a conference room to learn what he might do to not only help support the future success of AFS, but to also create an economic and regulatory environment that would make Connecticut a more attractive state for other similar start-up companies to establish roots.

Dr Joyce discussed how his own investments were helping to get AFS off the ground because the company could not qualify for many commercial, federal, and state programs. And that he was committed to balancing his own financial support to ensure 20 percent of the company’s ownership remains in the hands of its employees in the future.

He said by 2013, the company’s investment in Newtown would top $80 million, and $105 million by 2016. “Although in the first couple of years we’re deep in red ink — but again a very important contribution to the state,” Dr Joyce said.

Mr Powell said the company was in the process of seeking loans from a consortium of local banks with Newtown Savings Bank as the point agency, as well as from other companies that Dr Joyce was previously affiliated with before investing in AFS.

Mr Birnbach told Gov Malloy that once the Newtown facility opens, AFS will reestablish a long-lost institution that once lifted the United States to the pinnacle of world powers in the 20th Century.

“To the best of our knowledge, AFS is the first heavy industry startup in the United States in more than 50 years,” Mr Birnbach said.

The governor replied with a smile, saying AFS officials should feel good about themselves.

“As a first-phase company, I don’t think there is anything that matches the size and scope of what you’re doing, or your initial investment,” Gov Malloy said. “The size of the capital investment for what you are doing sets you apart from the other folks.”

Dr Joyce said once a company is up and running, it is easier to establish bank loans, but since it is a startup, AFS has been held back in efforts to access both commercial loans and state programs designed to help new businesses.

Mr Powell said the limited liability corporation or LLC status of AFS was the only way to go for its type of business, while more than 20 programs the company might access to help facilitate its establishment and initial growth are not available to the Newtown startup because they exclude LLCs.