When a company reaches its 90th year, it’s tempting to get sentimental. Marsh Electronics has certainly earned that right. But if you ask anyone who does business with them, they’ll tell you Marsh doesn’t linger in the past. The company that began in 1935 selling radio parts across a counter has survived, thrived, and reinvented itself by staying in motion. From analog components to automated assemblies, the thread running through it all has been family, adaptability, and the will to make change work in their favor.
From Radios to Relays
Marsh started when Earl Marsh opened a small radio supply shop on Milwaukee’s north side. Back then, customers would stop by for a vacuum tube or a CB part, maybe a chat about the latest in home electronics. “You could walk in, grab a couple of tubes, and fix your radio that night,” Steve Banovich recalled. “That was the world Marsh came from.”
As the transistor revolution reshaped the market, Marsh evolved right along with it. By 1973, the company officially dropped “Radio Supply” from its name — a small edit that said a lot about the future. “We had moved from counter sales to industrial customers,” Jim Banovich said. “It was a different game. OEMs were looking for reliable suppliers, not just components on a shelf.”
The Banovich Legacy
Few companies can claim a leadership story quite like Marsh’s. Jim and Steve’s father, James Banovich, joined Marsh in 1956 and learned the business from the ground up — literally. He started packing orders, then moved into purchasing, sales, and management. By the late 1970s, he owned the company outright.
“Dad was old school in the best way,” Jim said. “He knew the business from the inside out, and he built relationships that lasted decades.”
Those values came under pressure in the mid-1990s, when the electronics distribution world was consolidating at warp speed. “You either merged or got swallowed,” Jim said. “We merged.”
For a while, Marsh operated under a larger national distributor, but the fit was awkward. “We realized we were losing what made us Marsh,” Steve recalled. In 1998, after months of negotiation and risk, James and his partners bought the company back. “That decision changed everything,” Jim said. “If we hadn’t carved ourselves out, Marsh would have disappeared inside a big corporation. Getting our independence back let us decide who we wanted to be.”
Becoming a Specialist
That decision led directly to one of Marsh’s most defining moves — building a business around specialized distribution and value-added services. Even in the 1970s, Marsh had dabbled in custom work, assembling potentiometers or cutting wire to length. “Customers would ask if we could save them time by doing small preps,” Steve said. “We figured, why not?”
By the 1990s, those side projects became a division: MarVac Assemblies. It grew from simple component kitting into full-scale harnesses, box builds, and custom assemblies. “Customers wanted plug-and-play solutions,” Steve explained. “They were focusing on their final builds, not cutting and terminating wire. So we took that on for them.”
Today, MarVac’s capabilities cover nearly every level of electromechanical assembly. The 2024 acquisitions of Stark Electronics and Absolute Quality — both heavy in assembly work — expanded capacity even further. “We’re getting close to 30 percent of our overall business in value-add,” Jim said. “That balance between distribution and assembly is what gives us staying power.”
Modernizing the Model
Staying independent means staying nimble, and Marsh hasn’t hesitated to invest. The company recently installed two vertical storage units in its Milwaukee facility to streamline inventory and free up space. They opened a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Indianapolis, upgraded facilities in Appleton and Minneapolis, and rolled out a new ERP system tying together sales, production, and operations.
“Efficiency gives us flexibility,” Jim said. “We’re not trying to be the biggest; we’re trying to be the best fit. That means getting smarter about how we manage materials and communicate internally.”
He also noted a cultural shift: distributors can’t survive by moving boxes anymore. “We’ve gone from selling components to managing solutions,” he said. “Customers want us involved earlier — from design through production. They’re saying, ‘Can you manage the supply chain, help us test, help us package?’ It’s about trust and capability.”
MarVac mirrors that change. “We’ve got new automated crimping and processing equipment coming online, more digital documentation, and stronger quality controls,” Steve said. “But it still comes down to people — the technicians who take pride in what they build.”
People at the Core
That theme — people first — is still the anchor. “Marsh has always been family,” Jim said. “We’ve kept that feeling even as we’ve grown and professionalized. You treat people right, you keep them informed, and they’ll give you their best.”
Part of that professionalization included expanding HR, finance, and marketing. The latter brought in Jackie Roschmann, whose impact has been immediate. “Jackie’s been incredible,” Jim said. “She’s helped modernize our communication and coordinated everything for the 90th celebration.”
Steve laughed. “She even got to do food tastings when picking the caterers,” he added. Jackie admitted that was “the most delicious part of the job.” Beyond the laughs, her work reflected the same drive that’s kept Marsh on track — bringing people together with purpose.
A 90-Year Perspective
As Marsh prepares to celebrate at The Gage in West Allis, the milestone feels less like a capstone and more like another turn in the company’s long evolution. “The products have changed. The way we buy and sell has changed,” Jim said. “But the core idea hasn’t — do good work, adapt fast, and take care of your people.”
For Steve, the takeaway is simple. “It’s about balance,” he said. “We keep learning and upgrading, but we don’t forget who we are. That’s what Dad taught us.”
And it’s what keeps Marsh relevant in a competitive, fast-moving industry. As the company’s tenth decade begins, the Banovich brothers and their team are proving that independence, innovation, and family culture can coexist — and even thrive — in a world that often says otherwise.
From all of us at Wiring Harness News — congratulations to our friends at Marsh Electronics and MarVac Assemblies on 90 remarkable years. Here’s to the next decade of innovation, collaboration, and, yes, great taste.
