Grease, Grit, and Growth: Armite Lubricants Survives and Thrives

Join hosts Mickele Bragg and Heather Kuhar at COMP 2025 as we sit down with Kathy and Mike Sandstrum, the husband-and-wife team behind Armite Lubricants. Discover how this attorney-paralegal duo made the bold decision to leave their law practice and take over a nearly century-old family business specializing in military-spec lubricants for aerospace, defense, and marine industries.   Founded in 1928 by a Colorado School of Mines graduate, Armite has weathered the Great Depression, multiple ownership transitions, and most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Mike and Kathy share their journey of relocating the company from California to Colorado in 2020, right as the pandemic hit, and how they turned crisis into opportunity by achieving critical certifications like AS 9100 and becoming one of the first small businesses to obtain CMMC 2.0 certification.   Learn how this small family business competes with industry giants like Dow Corning and Loctite by leveraging their agility and personal service—delivering products in six days instead of six months. From supporting NASA's Artemis II mission to receiving direct requests from the Navy for new formulations, the Sandstrums prove that sometimes being small is the biggest advantage of all.