Multiple acquisitions and CEO succession help Compass continue its expansion from local shops to global operations
Since forming in October 2019, Compass Precision (Compass) has successfully acquired ten machine shops, grown revenues fivefold, expanded from 65 to 225 employees, and increased manufacturing floor space from 75,000 to 188,000 square feet. The Charlotte-based CNC machining roll-up was initially conceived by Dennis Prado, Ryan Davis and Gary Holcomb in 2018, before Main Street Capital Holdings purchased three local machine shops the following year and placed them under the Compass umbrella with Gary as President and CEO.
Fast forward to January 2026, Bill Canning took over from the founder as CEO of Compass, and the group continues to serve aerospace and defense, space, life sciences, medical and semiconductor markets with precision machined components for mission critical applications. Both Bill and Gary join Manufacturing Today magazine to explain more about its acquisition strategy and notoriety for taking on challenging projects.
“From the beginning, our strategy was to acquire high-end, well-run CNC machine and fabrication shops, then work with local management to make them even better and grow the business,” begins Gary, who remains Chairman at Compass. “It wasn’t long before we coined the phrase ‘we do the tough stuff’ as a slogan, which perfectly fits our strategy of catering to difficult jobs that most shops avoided. Much of our work centers on low volume and high mix requirements, with many orders containing multiple line items of different part numbers, and each line item requiring five to 50 units. We regularly take on the more problematic components, including those with complicated geometries, hard-to-machine materials, ultra tight tolerances, exacting surface finishes and parts manufacturing that requires overseeing outside processes.”
Numerous acquisitions followed, comprising of Gray Manufacturing in 2020, Douglas Machining Services in 2021, R&D Machine in 2022, Strom Manufacturing and Bergeron Machine in 2023, and Pocasset Machine and Trutron in 2025. These investments led to an increase of 50-to-250 customers for Compass, and the 2025 acquisitions illustrate its selection criteria. Bill highlights: “Pocasset focuses on the oceanographic sector which means they had unique customers and markets we hadn’t previously entered, whereas Trutron makes extremely high tolerance parts with capabilities we didn’t yet have, so they were both a great natural fit.”
The company’s acquisition strategy differs from a typical consolidation philosophy. “We’re different from most other organizations acquiring CNC machine shops in that we work very hard to encourage continued growth and development of every firm we acquire,” adds Gary. “We endeavor to transform B+/A- rated shops to best-in-class A/A+ rated shops, and even without acquisitive growth, we can lean on organic growth to drive the top line.”
To facilitate such growth, Compass invests heavily in both equipment and people, including the overall ecosystem, including software, processes, and staff training. “We’re exploring the use of AI on machine programming, as quality requirements of our aerospace customers are constantly growing, and the amount of data that needs capturing is growing,” Bill explains. “Instead of adding more people, we want to invest in streamlining those processes. Our recent investment in robotic machine tending at the Florida site demonstrates this impact. Once set up, this machine runs itself for days. We’ve also invested in training which ultimately raises the skill level of our current employees, and this has increased our output significantly without the need to hire more staff, while providing valuable learning and development opportunities.”
Having ten locations and hundreds of employees, the company has created a virtual center of excellence rather than building a physical R&D setting, which Bill deemed unnecessary. “We’ve worked on a method for leveraging all available knowledge and equipment – when it comes to R&D, we select a specific piece to focus and trial every year,” he says. “We then take our learnings and evaluate how it applies to the rest of our companies.”
2026 plans
For 2026, Compass’ priorities center on capacity expansion. “As we evaluate all our customer markets, we identify where our targeted focus needs to be,” Bill reveals. “This year, we’ll be focusing on more five-axis machining platforms, plus we’re seeing a strong push in the Swiss machining side of the business.”
Furthermore, its five-year vision involves scaling towards an even higher number of operating companies. “Looking ahead, it’s all about applying what we’ve learned over the past five to six years and taking the business from ten operating companies to 40 or 50,” Bill shares. “It’s not easy to manage multiple small businesses effectively, but it’s crucial, and we believe that’s our competitive advantage. We can be extremely agile and customers love that – they can speak to the decision makers as opposed to being passed through layers of management. As a smaller business, we can move quickly and effectively, but our customers get the best of both worlds because we can also provide them with the feel and financial backing of a larger company, de-risking the small business model. Our ‘act small, think big’ approach delivers that balance.”
With Gary’s recent transition to Chairman, the change in leadership further positions the company to scale. “I served just over six years as CEO and the board recognized that we needed to plan for management succession, particularly at the top,” Gary shares. “We hired Bill three years ago as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, with the hope and intention that his role would expand and that he would eventually become CEO. Bill and I worked closely together through 2023-to-2025 to grow our business organically and via acquisition, and I am incredibly proud to step aside and hand the reins to him this year.”
While many manufacturers chase volume and simplicity, Compass continues to pursue challenging, high-mix work, aligning perfectly with its motto: ‘we do the tough stuff.’
