Within the next three months Christopher Greimes, the chief executive officer of Allied Titanium, anticipates the company’s fabrication shop to be in operation.
Allied Titanium has been operating at its Sequim location at 1400 E. Washington St. since 2012 where inventory is stored doing quality inspections, sales, shipping and receiving, but the company is now preparing for production.
Eight employees operate the company’s Sequim location, including three full-time locally hired staff members. However, with the soon-to-be fabrication shop and eventually as many as 100 Citizen Swiss Screw Machines to manufacture titanium products, Greimes estimates the company will employ 50-150 workers.
“Right now we’re looking for good sales people,” Greimes said.
In the near future, Allied Titanium officials also will be looking to hire welders and fabricators.
In order to stay competitive on a global scale and beat the company’s current cost of manufacturing in China, the factory in Sequim will operate under a “lights out” business model, or in other words 24-hours a day. But for 16 of those hours the machines will be running via automatic programming, Greimes said.
Although the fabrication shop is mere months away from operation and will begin by manufacturing marine products, the next company goal to get Citizen Swiss Screw Machines, which are very fast, but also very costly, is dependent on the company’s ability to find investors. “The prime investor would be Boeing or the U.S. Navy,” Greimes said.
Each machine costs about $500,000 and Greimes expects to grow to about 100 machines.
One of the problems Allied Titanium was experiencing by manufacturing its products in China was the “lead times were too long,” Greimes said.
The company was losing out on an entire market place that need parts right away because of the time it takes to ship from China.
Because titanium is light-weight, it is cost effective and convenient to fly via FedEx and UPS, Greimes said.
“The big driver to move to Sequim was quick delivery,” Greimes said. “As long as FedEx and UPS continue to fly out of the Port Angeles airport we’re OK.”
In addition to Sequim’s close proximity to a international airport that both FedEx and UPS service, working with the City of Sequim “exceeded” Allied Titanium official’s expectation, Greimes said.
City Manager Steve Burkett said with Allied Titanium coming to Sequim it illustrates the city’s economic development strategy.
“We’re not going out chasing businesses,” he said. “The incentive is that we have a good place to live.”
Reach Alana Linderoth at alinderoth@sequimgazette.com.
