Jabil Circuit - History

History

Jabil was founded in 1966 by William E. Morean and James Golden in Detroit, Michigan with beginning operations in Morean’s garage. The Jabil name is composed of the founders’ first names (James and Bill). Despite Golden’s leaving the organization during its infancy, Jabil grew and operations were moved into a small facility in Royal Oak, Michigan in 1967. Shortly after opening this location, Jabil continued to flourish in the circuit board manufacturing industry and incorporated in 1969.

Morean’s son, William D. Morean, joined the enterprise in 1977 and brought with him a shift in Jabil’s operations. Morean implemented automated equipment and processes with the aim of attracting high-volume customers. In light of Morean’s changes in operations and sales and marketing strategies, Jabil transitioned into the Electronics Manufacturing Services Industry by manufacturing machine controls, voice synthesizers and control automations. By 1979, Morean secured a high-profile relationship with General Motors. This relationship accounted for a significant amount of revenue during this time and led to greater strides in service offerings, such as turnkey and engineering services, as well as purchasing of all parts for General Motors.

During the 1980’s, Jabil began integrating Independent test engineering and development, computer-aided production design services as well as product innovations such as surface mount technology (SMT) and tape automated bonding (TAB). Jabil also innovated the workcell concept during this time, or independent business unit. The independent business unit conducted itself as a “company within a company,” focusing its activities on specific products or individual customers. This specialized technique was implemented by project managers, engineers, materials procurement, supervisors, direct workers and dedicated manufacturing equipment, thereby creating more efficient workflows.

As Jabil increased its customer relationships, the organization recognized additional facilities outside of Michigan were needed to better serve customers. In 1983, headquarters were moved to its current location in St. Petersburg, Florida. New facilities were also added in 1992 in Auburn Hills, Michigan and a prototype and design facility in San Jose, California. Jabil further expanded its locations by opening its first International facility in Livingston, Scotland in 1993. In the same year, Jabil became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. Other international sites were added in Malaysia and Mexico in 1995 and 1997. It was during this time that Jabil also began to focus on the communications market by providing manufacturing services in the emerging network hardware industry. From 1998 to 2000, key acquisitions occurred with Hewlett-Packard’s laser printer formatter operations, GET Manufacturing, the warranty and repair service division of EFTC, Telenor Technology Services and Bull Information Technology. These strategic endeavors cultivated Jabil’s global presence with the additions of several international facilities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Italy, Eastern Europe and South America. Facilities were also added in the United States in locations such as Massachusetts, Florida and Tennessee. A wide range of diverse products and services were offered during the early 2000s, namely in design, manufacturing, direct fulfillment, repair and warranty services and plastic injection molding technologies. Jabil exceeded $3.5 billion in revenues by 2002.

In 2005 and 2007, Jabil acquired Varian Electronics Manufacturing and Taiwan-based Green Point Enterprises Co. Ltd. Both acquisitions further strengthened Jabil’s global standing within the medical, communications, industrial, mobile phone technology and aerospace industries. Jabil continued to broaden its reach in Asia by opening a site in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Jabil also made strides in quality and financial performance by receiving Global ISO 9001 and ISO 140012 Certification and making record revenues in 2010 of $13.4 billion.

As of July 2012, Jabil has 60 sites in 27 countries in four continents including Tel Aviv, Israel. Since going public, Jabil has been cited as “one of five companies to have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent or higher.” According to CEO, Tim Main, "the focus of the company in terms of forward-looking growth is diversified manufacturing services.” Jabil has branched out into several growth industries such as aerospace, defense, medical, healthcare/life sciences, clean technologies, solar and after market services.