Century Fasteners has just concluded its sixth year of continuous sales growth, dating back to 2001, says director of sales David Clark. But that wasn't always the case.

Based in Elmhurst, N.Y., Century is a full line distributor with product lines that include a wide array of electronics items—a very successful area for them in the 1990s.

In hindsight, though, it was electronics' success back then that caused Century to place too much emphasis on that line—an emphasis that made for challenging times when electronics began to taper off, Clark explains.

Like many companies, Century's revenues dropped during the 1999-2001 period. The company had been successful for much of the '90s, Clark says, by focusing on the telecommunications industry and its seemingly unquenchable appetite for electronics products.

But nothing lasts forever. About 1999-2000, the electronics bubble burst, followed by the telecommunications industries leveling off.

“Looking back, you'd have thought it would go on forever,” Clarks says. “Internet traffic was then doubling every six months. So who wouldn't think that companies would still be upgrading their equipment? But everyone was over-leveraged in that market.”

Century realized that the declining sales situation could only be rectified by getting more diversified in electronics as soon as possible, Clark explains.

“First of all, so much of our sales were tied up in telecom,” he says. “And everything I was reading said those markets probably wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.”

Century redesigned its Web site to make it more responsive to customers' service needs, including an increasing demand for engineering support, explains director of marketing John Ringold. They also focused on strengthening their North American sales coverage, he adds.

“We came to realize our business model had to revolve around being different from other distributors,” Ringold says. “Just lowering price was not the answer. Customers today are more sophisticated. Our marketing strategy is to provide our customers with ways we can save them money.”

“We got out of the hole we were in through good old-fashioned hard work,” Clark says. “I knew if we kept giving enough opportunities to our sales force we'd pull out of [the slump].”

These days, Century's electronics products are sold to companies in a variety of industries, such as safety, security, aerospace, defense and even satellites, Clark says.

“There are a lot of industries we now sink our teeth into,” Clark says. “Today, no one industry takes the majority of our sales, which is great.”

Ironically, telecom has been bouncing back a little, Clark says, thanks to wireless communications.

“Next year, one billion cell phones will be manufactured,” he explains. “So not only will there be a need for parts, but there will also be a need for more infrastructure.”

That resurgence symbolizes the nature of many of the industries to which Century sells.

“These markets are all cyclical,” Clark says. “We see military and aerospace slowing down. But we're more diversified than we were a few years ago. So my hope is that when these markets slow down, the others—medical, medical electronics, telecom—will be steady.”