Napoleon Engineering Services has received distinction as a 2025 Western New York Manufacturing Awards winner for General Excellence.

Napoleon Engineering (NES) was one of 25 companies to be cited, earning its win in the General Excellence category of awards coordinated annually by Buffalo Business First. NES was feted at an awards celebration at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens in Depew on Thursday.

“We’re thrilled to be recognized as a 2025 Manufacturing Awards winner,” Chris Napoleon, NES president and chief engineer, stated. “For the last 28 years, it has been our mission to both contribute to — and make a significant impact on — the manufacturing sector in Western New York through our distinguished custom bearing manufacturing and bearing testing and inspection services.

“This award merely reflects the hard work that we put into those services and the pride we take in being a premier bearing-solution provider,” he added.

This marks NES’s third Manufacturing Awards honor following awards in 2014 (Operational Excellence) and 2015 (Community Involvement). Napoleon noted it was fitting that the 2025 award came in the General Excellence category given NES’s advancements in several areas over the last half decade.

NES is a major custom bearing manufacturer for the aerospace and aviation markets, producing parts for well-known rocket companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin and heavyweight aircraft engine-makers like Rolls Royce and Honeywell. It is notable that every time SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket, its engines contain specialized bearings made in Olean.

Additionally:

• NES houses the largest independent bearing inspection and testing facility in North America, with more than 100 testing platforms. Through an array of services, NES provides customers with accurate, valuable and timely information about the performance and expectation of their products.

• In 2023 NES completed a 24,000-square-foot addition to its Johnson Street facility, pushing its total footprint to 46,000 square feet. This allowed the company to consolidate all its business units under one roof.

• NES has made recent significant investments in both equipment and personnel, investing more than $1 million in new machinery over the last year, allowing it to increase its throughput capacity while enhancing its manufacturing, inspection and testing services.

NES has also grown exponentially from a staffing standpoint over the last 16 months.

Since January 2024, NES has made 16 new hires, including 11 since September. The company has expanded from 52 full-time employees in September 2023 to 64 today, adding personnel in IT, machining, engineering, inspection and testing, office administration, quality, metallurgy and shipping.

• NES is heavily involved in the community, participating in numerous local fundraisers and events. It’s also taken a leading role in promoting and maintaining the local manufacturing sector by partnering with organizations such as Cattaraugus-Allegany Dream It Do It, which encourages students to pursue careers in manufacturing.

The Western New York manufacturing sector employs 69,000 individuals in 1,600 companies, according to Buffalo Business First..

“While we’re ecstatic to be a Manufacturing Awards winner, we’re mostly thankful,” Napoleon said. “We’re thankful to the selection committee for deeming us worthy of the General Excellence Award; we’re thankful to our talented co-workers, whose hard work and dedication allow us to be successful; and we’re thankful to our customers, friends and associates. Without their support, business and trust in us, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”