Sigma Design, a Vancouver-based product design and engineering firm, said Monday that it will launch a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing site in east Vancouver this spring that will employ at least 20 permanent workers and up to 100 permanent and temporary workers during peak production times.
The facility, in Building No. 2 at the former Hewlett-Packard campus now owned by SEH, is set to open in April, the company said. The next three months will be spent developing the space with offices, production and shipping/receiving areas. Brian Blume, a veteran Sigma Design project manager, will oversea manufacturing operations.
The new production site is a significant expansion for 20-year-old Sigma, which grew from 74 employees at the start of last year to 102 today. Most are in Vancouver but nine report to the company’s office in Singapore. Just four years ago, when it moved into its present offices at 1714 Broadway in Vancouver, Sigma had only 35 employees.
Sigma president Bill Huseby says the company grew last year in every area, including engineering, administration, marketing and sales, shop and lab staff. He said the manufacturing site will double Sigma’s physical space.
Initially, much of the work will be high-end electro-mechanical devices that will be produced in relatively low volumes by skilled workers, Huseby said.
“Longer term, we want to grow it even more,” said Huseby, a former Hewlett-Packard employee who once worked in Building No. 2. “This is just a start.”
Derek Woodson, Sigma’s vice president of business development, o said he hopes the new manufacturing initiative will open the way for others to follow with local manufacturing efforts.
“We are seeing changes in product-generation processes that have companies today rethinking the locations of their manufacturing operations,” Woodson said. “It is starting to make more sense to manufacture in the western hemisphere again.”
Clark County began attracting electronics design and manufacturing companies in the 1970s, but many manufacturing jobs disappeared or faded after the 2001 recession. The Employment Security Department’s most recent monthly report, for November, shows 13,400 manufacturing jobs in the county, up from 12,800 the previous November. The annual average wage for those jobs is $50,093.
WaferTech, with just over 1,000 jobs, is the county’s largest manufacturing employer.
“We are excited about Sigma Design’s expansion and believe the move is indicative of a generally vibrant and growing manufacturing base in Clark County,” said Mike Bomar, president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council, the public-private jobs promotion organization. “Affordable energy, strong talent and good logistics continue to make this area a great place for manufacturers and their supply chain to locate and grow business.”
