History

Our founder and President, Saeed Saffaei, has spent more than 25 years in the wiring harness industry, including upper-management positions within EMD and Monona wire. With his wealth of experience and business acumen, Saeed knew he could produce a superior product than was currently on the market. In 1999 Saeed founded SK Express, Inc., with the goal of producing the highest quality wiring harnesses and cable assemblies.

As with most start-ups, the first year was lean. Saeed spent countless hours building SK’s client list, sourcing parts and equipment, and keeping his dream alive. By 2000, SK Express was beginning to take off and Saeed asked JR Acasio to join him as Vice President. Not only had Saeed and JR worked together previously, JR has spent the majority of his career in the wiring harness industry, and is a virtual encyclopedia of industry knowledge.

By 2004, SK had outgrown the small shop in Aurora, IL and moved to a much larger facility in Sycamore, IL. As anyone who is familiar with the wiring harness industry knows, the Sycamore/DeKalb area is the hub of manufacturing in this region. With a growing client list and now occupying more than 35,000 square feet in the Sycamore Industrial Complex, the company was poised to spread its wings; and so we did.

In the next few years, leading up to the Great Recession, SK Express grew and grew. And to everyone’s amazement, we actually grew even more during the Great Recession. By 2007 SK had taken over space in the adjoining building. During this time we were also able to add several highly automated wire processing machines, a Microsoft Dynamics ERP system, CAD/CAM systems, and a host of customized applications and process.

At the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014 when we moved our headquarters to DeKalb, IL. The move was made with zero negative impact to our customers and has allowed us to even further optimize our manufacturing process. Our corporate headquarters in DeKalb offers +62,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space along with support and technical staff readily available to collaborate with our clients.

In late 2017 SK Express seized an opportunity to expand with an international footprint by opening a facility in Monterrey, NL, Mexico. This facility allows us to pair our support of service and prototype parts from DeKalb with specialized high-volume manufacturing operations in an 80,000 sq. ft. facility. We look forward to entering new markets given the increased capacity across multiple facilities.