Growing With A Changing Auto Industry

Stratosphere Quality’s Chairman, Steve Cage, and CEO, Tom Gray, discuss their ability to grow in a competitive environment with an ever-changing automotive industry. They were recently featured in the Indianapolis Business Journal.

Inspection firm grows with changing auto industry

Steve Cage took the risky step of starting a quality-control business focused on the automotive industry near the peak of the Great Recession. It was February 2009, and a similar company he sold to a venture capital firm in 2004, Product Action International, had suddenly ceased operations. “They crashed it in five years, which is hard to believe,” Cage said. “It’s like riding a bike.” Cage, 64, didn’t want his former employees to be out of work, so almost immediately he launched Stratosphere Quality, which inspects products and plant processes, ensures quality, and helps manufacturers eliminate defects. He housed the company in a facility at 12024 Exit Five Parkway in Fishers that had been intended for his muscle car collection. The first year, the company managed $8 million in revenue as Cage was able to snag former customers. The next year, revenue zoomed to $21 million. Read the full article written by Lindsey Erdody at the Indiana Business Journal