Gold shovels and free bagels greeted guests outside Kyocera’s Vancouver plant on Fourth Plain Boulevard Monday morning — sure signs that something good was about to happen.
Soon, company officials took those shovels and broke ground on a planned expansion for the high-tech ceramics manufacturer that will more than double the production area and add about 25 employees in the next year.
“Kyocera has had a strong commitment to Vancouver for a long time,” Kyocera America Inc. President Robert Whisler said during the groundbreaking ceremony attended by community members and many of the company’s 125 local employees. “It’s exciting to see this business take off the way it has.”
The addition will add 22,000 square feet of space to the 42,000 square feet already in use. The company hopes to start moving into the addition this fall.
The $10 million project will add needed space to a plant that has had to rent offsite storage and that has been running 24 hours a day, 6.5 days a week, according to the company.
The plant’s Japanese parent company, Kyorcera Corp., is a fairly diversified technology company. The local subsidiary, Kyocera Industrial Ceramics Corporation, is known largely for its ceramic semiconductor and industrial components. The subsidiary also has locations in Plymouth, Mich., and Hendersonville, N.C.
Kyocera has had a long history in Vancouver, though it wasn’t always a successful one, company officials admitted Monday. But as the manufacturer hit a stride, revenues here doubled in recent years, and the company finally ran out of space.
“When I was young and naive, I never would have guessed it would take until 2016 to (expand),” said plant manager Brad D’Emilio, who joined the company when it first opened shop in 1991 at 5713 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd. “In these last few years we’ve really gotten the ball rolling, and I can’t tell you how excited I am.”
Mayor Tim Leavitt praised the company’s employees and pointed to the investment the city and others are making along the Fourth Plain corridor.
“What’s occurring here is emblematic of what’s happening in the broader community,” Leavitt said.
