Petra Precision Machining and Design, INC.

3105 Central Heights Road 751-3461

From left, front row are Justin Johnson, Robert Guilford, Otis Richard Jr. and Earnest Richard Jr.; and on the back from left are Willie E. Ward, Agnes Bell, Mary D. Isler, Earnest Richard Sr., Sharon Richard and Kayla Richard.

In the summer of 1985, Earnest Richard went to Wayne Community College to enroll in its mechanics program. But fate intervened and he accidentally took a wrong turn and wound up in the machine shop.

Today, Earnest runs his own business, PETRA Precision Machining & Design, Inc., which opened in March 2005 and is located at 3105 Central Heights Road.

Earnest has 22 years of experience in the machining and design industry, including 12 years in supervision, four years as part-owner of a machine shop and as an on-site machine shop instructor and seminar facilitator for a number of workforces in several counties, including community colleges.

PETRA provides machine shop services for aviation, medical, automotive and electrical industries throughout eastern North Carolina, using top quality machinery, processes and staff.

Products are manufactured from plastics, brass tool sets, aluminum, bronze, alloys, copper, carbon steels and stainless steels.

PETRA is one of the few minority-owned machine shops in eastern North Carolina. The mission of the business, Earnest says, is to accommodate customers by providing close tolerance control machining of machine and tooling components, production machining and automation of production lines, all with exceptional quality and fair, competitive prices and on-time delivery.

He proudly points to PETRA's shop employees apprenticeship program that is registered with the North Carolina Department of Labor's Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training.