“You build a business when times are tough,” Nemeth said. “We’re taking our core competency and we are going after a whole lot of different markets.”

The tough times lately come courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic, which grounded aircraft fleets for months and slowed the entire supply chain in the aerospace industry. Orders from Jonal clients like Pratt & Whitney and Boeing dropped 70% in 2020 compared to 2019.

With help from $2 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans to keep key operations going, Jonal took the slowdown as an opportunity to rent new manufacturing space ahead of planned expansion into new markets, Nemeth said.

The privately-held company, which declined to disclose its annual revenues, employs 115 people in Meriden, at its historic headquarters at 456 Center St. and in an 11,000-square-foot manufacturing site at 290 Pratt St. Products include a range of O-ring seals, fabric-reinforced seals, thin-walled diaphragms, aerodynamic and platform seals, rubber-to-metal bonding, silicone extrusions and EMI/RFI shielding products.

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