Industrial Welding Company Moves Operations to Waterbury, Conn

Aug. 27--WATERBURY, Conn.--In the end, the deal was just too good to pass up.
Daren Thornberg, the owner of Watertown-based Dasco Welded Products Inc., a 10-year-old industrial welding and metal fabrication company, will move his six-person operation to a former emissions inspection station at 2038 Thomaston Ave. late next month.
Dasco makes metal products such as racks, rails, columns, benches and boxes by cutting, shaping, assembling and welding metal pieces. Its customers range from local homeowners who need a metal handrail for an outdoor staircase to large, high-profile clients, like Columbia University, Penn Station and The New York Times, that are undergoing multimillion-dollar remodeling or expansion projects.
Thornberg, who says he will add at least two additional employees to his work force when the move to Waterbury is completed, bought the 8,000-square-foot building and the 1.7-acre parcel that surrounds it from Envirotest Systems Corp. in July for $400,000.
Envirotest, an East Granby-based subsidiary of Environmental Systems Products Holdings Inc., ran the state's emissions testing program from 1983 until June of last year. The company lost the emissions testing contract to Agbar Technologies Inc. of Chicago in 2002, two years after a bribery scandal, and closed all of its 25 emission testing across the state last summer.
Thornberg, who has been leasing a 5,000-square-foot facility at 127 Echo Lake Road in Watertown plus about 500 square feet of warehouse space in Oakville, said he is making the move to consolidate his operation and because the chance to purchase a roomy, well-maintained building in a prime industrial location with easy highway access just doesn't come along every day.
"This was a great opportunity," he said. "It's a great location; we'll get a lot of exposure here."
The fact the property qualified for tax breaks under the state's Urban Jobs Program made the move to Waterbury even more attractive, Thornberg said. Under the four-year-old program, Thornberg receives an 80-percent abatement on all real estate and personal property taxes, including equipment, for the next five years.
Thornberg, 38, a Wolcott resident, established the company in Watertown, his hometown, with two partners in 1993, one year after having been laid off from his job as an environmental technician at AlliedSignal in Cheshire.
The company's sales have grown from about $150,000 during its first year to $700,000 last year, said Thornberg, who has bought out both of his original partners.
Robert M. Van Geons, the city's economic development director, described Dasco as a well-run operation with growth potential. He said it typifies the kind of progressive small manufacturing company the city has been trying to attract. He also called Thornberg's decision to relocate to Waterbury a prelude of things to come.