Computer-guided lasers crackle as they slice into a piece of steel at ICF Industries&rsquo; new production facility. Across the room, massive punch machines penetrate metal sheets with pinpoint accuracy. </p><p>Although the Pleasant Hill firm has invested heavily in its plant and the tools of the trade, CEO Bob Krug said equipment isn&rsquo;t what sets the company apart from other metal fabricators.</p><p>&ldquo;We all have the same machinery,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It truly is our employees. I think it&rsquo;s because they have ownership.&rdquo;</p><p>ICF has been an employee-owned firm since a leveraged buyout in 1999. Employees own shares of the company&rsquo;s private stock based on their percentage of the payroll and become vested after six years. They also are eligible for bonuses.</p><p>ICF serves about 70 clients in industries such as health care, lawn and garden, transportation, agriculture, recreational equipment and defense. </p><p>Krug, who has been with the company since 1988, has seen how ownership motivates his employees to pay attention to details as small as clicking off a light switch.</p><p>&ldquo;The fact is that they do share in our profitability,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When you are an owner, I think there&rsquo;s a lot more caring.&rdquo;</p><p>Recently, a customer called on a Friday afternoon with a last-minute order needed by day&rsquo;s end. Krug approached his employees with the request.</p><p>&ldquo;They all said no problem,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Those guys worked until 8:30 on Friday night and a truck was sitting here, waiting to take those to the airport and to a chartered plane. That&rsquo;s why we have companies coming back to us.&rdquo;</p><p>ICF also has sought a competitive advantage by investing in new equipment and facilities. </p><p>In 2007, the company moved from Independence &mdash; it was formerly known as Independence Custom Fabricators &mdash; to an 89,000-square-foot building in Pleasant Hill. Renovating the vacant veneer plant presented challenges.</p><p>&ldquo;It was pretty run-down,&rdquo; Krug said. &ldquo;(But) I could see the potential. We could make this thing work as a sheet metal shop.&rdquo;</p><p>The additional space has allowed the firm to operate more efficiently and has given it capacity for larger projects. It also provided room for a painting operation &mdash; a process previously outsourced. </p><p>The company practices lean manufacturing and recently received ISO 9001:2008 certification. Krug said that standard is required to do business with many companies in the health care and automotive industries.</p><p>ICF has no shortage of competitors, ranging from another fabricator a few miles down the road to factories in China. Being stateside gives the company an advantage with fuel prices and lead time. </p><p>&ldquo;If you are a company practicing lean manufacturing and just-in-time deliveries, if there is any glitch in the supply chain overseas, you could be weeks,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>The 28-year-old company has about 75 employees and had revenues last year of about $10 million. ICF responded to the business downturn by laying off about a dozen workers, cutting pay and switching to a four-day work week. By fall, however, ICF had returned to a normal five-day schedule and was able to return to previous pay rates.</p><p> &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve weathered the storm,&rdquo; Krug said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve come back and have had some really solid months.&rdquo;</p><p>Driving the resurgence is the fact that recession-wary customers had finally depleted their inventories and needed to restock. </p><p>&ldquo;Everybody was so afraid to buy anything, but now there is pent-up demand,&rdquo; he said.