NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS: Thermcraft has become a success at home and abroad by keeping up with the times and building individual relationships.

Tom Crafton is not a fan of voicemail.

The owner of custom furnace and oven manufacturer Thermcraft Inc. insists a real person answer the phone during business hours. He also responds to emails as soon as he sees them.

"I'll move heaven and Earth to help that customer," he says. "That's your first impression. I want to at least show that we care." His Winston-Salem business thrives on personal attention. The items he manufactures--laboratory furnaces, ceramic fiber heaters, ovens, kilns and such--often require an individualized sale. Having that timely, human connection is imperative. And being able to supply products and parts quickly and made-to-order has put Thermcraft's name on merchandise around the world.

"We are very diverse in our customer base. Many are Fortune 500 companies and many are OEMs, where we supply components to go into a complete system. The industry varies from one end to the other," he says. "One thing that's been good for us is our diversity from glass to fiber optics to metal. ... It's letting us maintain a pretty strong business."

Thermcraft works with companies such as DuPont, Westinghouse and Corning. "They would have a facility in Europe or Asia. Back in the early 2000s or so, we would deal with the semiconductor industry, and much of that moved offshore to China or Taiwan, and we followed that along."

His staff of 62 in the shop and office includes some employees who have been on board for 20 years. The company started in 1971 and has 70,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 3,600 square feet of offices on a 12-acre campus. Two off-site warehouses are used for storage.

"What we do is not necessarily something you go to school for," Crafton says. "We've been in business over 45 years, so experience is a lot of it. We had a large company that was a competitor, and they didn't really support their customers, and we really supported what the customer needed. That service really helped our business. We build furnaces and systems to customer specification. Most have a standard line, but we do custom designs. We would take an application or need that a customer had and work to design a system that meets their qualifications. So, the customized business developed our business throughout the county and nationwide." Thermcraft participates in trade shows, including an annual event in Dubai, but also adheres to the global demands of instant-access.

"The millennial generation will find what they want on the internet...