SOUTH WINDSOR – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced that Evolution Aero, Inc. (EvoAero), a minority-owned, second-generation family manufacturer of specialized products for the aerospace and aero-engine industry, is this week’s “Murphy’s Monday Manufacturer.” In 1980, the Agreda family founded a small, two-machine manufacturing shop in South Windsor. Over the years, the Agreda’s business has experienced continued success, and they eventually acquired several other aerospace manufacturing companies. Today, their business is known as EvoAero and is headquartered out of a nearly 100,000 square foot facility in South Windsor. In addition to their Connecticut location, the company has a satellite manufacturing facility in Florida.

EvoAero offers fabrication and machining services – including 3-D prototyping, precision machining, tube bending, pressure testing, nondestructive testing, welding, brazing, heat treating, and water jet cutting – to customers in the aerospace and power generation markets, and has completed engine and structural work for many well-known institutions, including General Electric, the United States Government, and even Connecticut’s own Pratt & Whitney, General Dynamics/Electric Boat, and Sikorsky Aircraft. Specifically, EvoAero provides machined detail engine parts for Pratt & Whitney’s F-100, F-119, F-135, and Geared Turbofan programs as well as aero structure and gear box details for Sikorsky’s CH-53K Heavy Lift Helicopter program.

As the company has expanded over the past three decades, so has the size of their workforce. EvoAero currently employs 72 hardworking engineers, technicians, and machinists in Connecticut, and the company is even expecting to grow by as much as 40 percent in just the next few years. The Agreda’s have established partnerships with local colleges and schools to encourage students to enter the manufacturing sector. In an effort to help develop a workforce large enough to meet the demands of the industry, they have even created their own training center on the production floor of their South Windsor facility, where new recruits can learn about the field and its technologies.

Murphy said, “EvoAero is doing big things for the advancement of local manufacturing and is leading the way toward creating more opportunities for more Connecticut residents. With the help of their highly skilled employees, the Agreda family has taken it upon themselves to train new and aspiring engineers and technicians to help fill the many well-paying positions that Connecticut manufacturers will fill in the coming years. At the rate that EvoAero has grown over the last 35 years, it’s no surprise they’re still looking to expand.”

Charlie Agreda, co-founder of EvoAero, said, “Our company has a vision to be a leader in embracing new opportunities which stimulates opportunities to the local economy. Without a vision and partnerships within the community, the school systems and other businesses, we cannot achieve our goals. The state has been responsive by funding programs for expansion and training but we need help in awareness. While our next generation workforce is completing their education, many do not understand the opportunities within manufacturing and the rewarding feeling of taking a design from concept to final product. Our company proudly manufactures in the USA and we are, Where Innovation Takes Shape!”

The manufacturing industry plays a crucial role throughout Connecticut communities, creating new jobs and accelerating our state’s economic recovery. Today, Connecticut’s 4,602 manufacturers account for 10.2% of the state’s jobs and 87% of the state’s total exports. In order to protect and grow manufacturing jobs in Connecticut, Murphy has introduced two pieces of legislation that aim to strengthen existing standards and prioritize the purchase of American-made goods, the 21st Century Buy American Act and the American Jobs Matter Act.