Mission Ready
A new leadership team sharpens Atscott Manufacturing’s technological capabilities to compete in defense and aerospace.
Years ago, we started writing about outstanding manufacturing leaders in Enterprise Minnesota magazine. Our November feature on Atscott Manufacturing represents the “second generation” of those stories, and this is a wonderful one.
We previously highlighted owner John Norris. Now we introduce Steve Birch and Scott Sikkink, the two Army veterans Norris has tapped to lead the Pine City contract machine shop as CEO and COO.
I met Scott this summer and knew our readers would benefit from hearing about Atscott’s new leaders.
What’s remarkable about Birch, who became CEO on Jan. 1, is that he has no manufacturing background. He retired from the Army as a colonel in 2014 after 31 years specializing in communications and IT organizational strategy, then spent a decade in data and analytics management at travel company CWT. He knew Norris, having served on the boards of Tower Solutions, Atscott’s sister company, and ATS, the holding company that owns both.
When Norris asked him to take the job, Birch felt a duty to say yes. “Honestly, there’s not a person I respect more than John in terms of being a good role model and an ethical business leader,” he says. Birch is also CEO of ATS, keeping the two companies in sync. About half of Atscott’s business is manufacturing the self-erecting towers, primarily for military use, that Tower Solutions designs and sells.
Birch says everyone in the plant knows that he doesn’t know manufacturing. “I do know the difference between a mill and a lathe now,” he says. “I do know a lot about organizational change. I do know a lot about computer systems.”
In April, Birch gained a right-hand man. Sikkink served seven years in Army Special Operations and was a police officer in North Carolina before earning a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Minnesota and working for Ford and Polaris. Considering retirement, he came across a career fair at a Cambridge shopping mall where Atscott had a booth. That began what he calls a “gentle, patient courtship.”
“The Army taught me leadership and discipline,” Sikkink says. “Law enforcement gave me the perspective of understanding cause and effect. Engineering strengthened my analytic and problem-solving skills.”
As COO, he runs day-to-day plant operations and puts a premium on communicating with the production team. “People have to feel ownership,” he says.
Together — one focused on broader organizational change, the other on internal process improvement — they’re building on the foundation Norris laid. They’re pursuing defense and aerospace work, leveraging the company’s industry certifications, implementing a new ERP system to speed decision-making and adding space and equipment to produce higher-value parts.
Norris is pleased. Birch’s “vision is identical to mine,” he says. And in Sikkink, Atscott has a COO with the background to shape its growth strategy, he says.
The initial results are encouraging. Atscott employs more than 70 people and has added 17 this year. Sales topped $16 million in 2025, up 23% from 2024, and the company expects to approach $20 million in 2026.
Read the full feature in our November issue, to be released at our annual State of Manufacturing kickoff event on Nov. 11.
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