A worker adjust a machine used at Precision Source to make parts for the automotive, aerospace and jewelry industries.

SMITHFIELD — Three months after acquiring a small parts manufacturer, the new owners of Precision Source have increased employment and doubled sales.

The company, formerly known as P&C Precision Co., now employs 18 workers in a 37,000-square-foot building on Maple Avenue in the mill district of Smithfield.

Co-owner Paul Taveira said the company’s sales are up to about $45,000 a week and the business plan calls for future, annual sales in the $3 million range.

Taveira and two partners, Sam Mukarkar and Paul Warren, formed an investment group, PSP LLC, that in February acquired P&C Precision, a 40-year-old manufacturer that once did work for the pen industry.

Since then, the partners have acquired Blair 58, a small manufacturer in Pawtucket, and integrated that operation into the Smithfield plant, which has been upgraded with a new phone and computer system and about 70 pieces of equipment. The company now sells precision parts internationally to the aerospace, jewelry, automotive and medical industries.

The partners financed the acquisitions and expansions with equity, a loan from Washington Trust and a small business loan from the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation.

The loan is one of 12 totaling about $2.6 million that were granted to various businesses since June 2007 from the RIEDC’s Small Business Loan Fund and Micro Loan program. The state agency claims the loans have helped create or retain about 400 jobs. The program was created in 1986 to retain viable businesses, retain jobs, promote job growth, support skill and wage upgrades, attract new businesses and assist viable businesses that cannot obtain funding through traditional sources.

“Tough economic conditions like those we now face make programs like the Small Business Loan Fund and micro loan program especially valuable,” said RIEDC executive director Saul Kaplan, in a statement

The micro-loan component of the SBLF program was started in August 2005 to assist small and minority-owned businesses with annual revenues of less than $300,000 and fewer than five employees. The RIEDC board of directors initially set aside $500,000 from the Small Business Loan Fund for lending but due to high demand the board increased the microloan fund to $750,000 in 2006. To date, $600,000 has been loaned.

Both programs are funded through awards from the U.S. Economic Development Agency.

Among the recipients are:

•Concordia Manufacturing received a $500,000 loan to help expand its medical manufacturing operations. As part of these expansion efforts, Concordia will lease a 24,575-square-foot facility in Warwick. The total capital cost for this expansion is approximately $1.6 million, which includes the build out of expanded clean room space and the purchase of new manufacturing and test equipment.

“Access to these funds will play an integral role in our company’s expansion efforts into the biomedical space,” stated Randal Spencer, president and CEO. Concordia employs 57 people and plans to hire an additional 10 to 15 people in the next 24 months.

•Malco Saw Co., a manufacturer of saw blades in Cranston, used a $125,000 loan to buy out a family member and expand the business, said Greg Malco, the owner. The company employs 11 people.

•New England Syrup Co., in Smithfield, used a $35,000 loan as working capital to expand its food product business that sells beverage mixes, flavors and food colors to restaurant chains and suppliers, according to John Marchant, an owner.

The loan program is part of the RIEDC’s plan to increase the percentage of jobs in Rhode Island that pay above the national average wage of $42,000 from 40 to 60 percent. Other priorities include a regional campaign to promote new company relocation and expansion, a partnership to leverage property made available through the Route 195 relocation, programs that strengthen the state’s workforce development services, an effort to increase the state’s research and development capacity and expansion of programs that support the state’s small businesses.

Source: R.I. Economic Development Corporation