State Treasurer Visits Wakefield Model Plane Company

State Treasurer Steve Grossman and representatives from The Savings Bank were at Paul K. Guillow, Inc. on Thursday to highlight a state program for small businesses.

Grossman was in town to highlight the Small Business Banking Partnership where the state deposits up to $10 million in cash reserve funds into banks that agree to extend more loans to credit-worthy small businesses.

With help from a $110,000 loan under the program from The Savings Bank, Guillow Inc. reports that it plans to hire six new workers. The loan was used to purchase a piece of precision manufacturing equipment that will help streamline some of the company's operations."The backbone of this economy ultimately has to be about making things, being productive," said Grossman.

Paul K. Guillow, Inc. is a company specializing in balsa wood model airplanes that was founded in Wakefield in the 1920s by a local World War I veteran who had been a naval pilot. According to a history provided by the company, interest in Guillow's model airplanes boomed after Charles Lindbergh's famed trans-Atlantic flight in 1927. The company's headquarters and manufacturing facility is located on New Salem Street and employs about 50 people. The company history says that Guillow started the business from his home in downtown Wakefield, on the second floor of a service station. Until 1933, the company was called Nu Craft Toys.

"All over Massachusetts you see manufacturing taking root again," said Grossman, saying that the area of precision manufacturing is especially poised for growth.

President Thomas Barker told Wakefield Patch that although this is normally a slow time of year, the company is actually running somewhat behind right now due to strong demand. Barker came to work for the company in 1975 and became company president in 2009.

To learn more about Paul K. Guillow, Inc., visit their website here.