Hello, I’m DeWayne Thornton, President and Owner at Tombigbee Tooling, Inc (TTI). I would like to provide a few words on the historical background of TTI. It is our hope that this information will provide you a better knowledge of our origins, who we are today, and the vision for our future.

From the Beginning

In 1980, what is now TTI, began as Smith Tool & Die Company. A very accomplished and young Johnnie D. Smith started the company in Mantachie, MS. The business began doing special machine work, fixtures, and stamping dies for local industry. John later began to add employees, the first two would be Don Cole and myself, DeWayne Thornton. Labor Day weekend of 1988 would change our lives forever through the accident resulting in the tragic death of our friend and boss, Johnnie Smith.

After operating the company for a short time for John’s family, and with the assistance of a financial partner, my wife and I became part owners and Smith Tool & Die would become Tombigbee Tooling, Inc. Even in the early years, the organization was built around extraordinary individuals, of the four original team members, Dennis Wade, Don Cole, and I remain vital parts of the company to this day.

Who We Are Today

TTI continues to grow and build off the foundation of its origins. By 1990 we would need to expand. That summer, the current location was purchased and TTI moved to its new home. Through the 1990’s, TTI continued to expand our capabilities, while also expanding the sales footprint from local business to a regional approach. My wife, Debbie Thornton, and I acquired full ownership of the company in 1992 and later expanded the facility in 2005, to 22,000 square feet.

From the beginning, we have followed a vision to constantly strive to expand our capabilities, equipment, industries served, and technology to improve the integrity and knowledge of our team while continuing to improve the product and service we provide to our customers. TTI today services a broad range of clientele across the manufacturing industry including appliance, automotive, commercial lighting, HVAC, independent stamping, automotive systems, as well as university research. Our current facility size is 29,800 square feet, with plans of impending expansion already in place.

Planning the Future

Currently, TTI employs 36 employees and operates two shifts per day. Our future plans include, but are not limited to, a focused effort of building our team to 45-50 members to better serve our customers. In addition to personnel expansion, we also have a physical addition planned. This will allow TTI to again increase the square footage, increase the size of assembly and machining areas, as well as additional administration areas.

As part of growth to meet the demands of a changing industry, we also have plans to continue to explore technology based equipment and processes to aid us in expanding our capabilities into medium volume stamping and production machining.

 

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about Tombigbee Tooling. We hope this site aids you in finding everything you will need to confidently decide we are a company you will want to make a part of your supplier network. We look forward to serving you.

Sincerely,

DeWayne Thornton

 

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