Aerospace contract manufacturer Commerce Overseas Corp. is leaving expensive Orange County for cheaper North Carolina.
The small Tustin-based company has been here for seven years, but is set to move within five months to a new headquarters building in Kinston.
“California is just too tough on small business,” said Chief Executive Chris Garville.
Garville said the new headquarters is near an airport and the deal came to him at an attractive price,something he couldn’t find in OC.
Commerce Overseas makes spare parts for aging military planes. Most of its business is nabbed through contracts with other manufacturers.
It serves a niche market worth billions of dollars with about six competitors.
The company began 40 years ago in New York by Garville’s father. It moved to Southern California after buying Flight Products Corp. in 2000.
“Business has been booming with a lack of new planes coming on the market,” he said.
Most of its products go to foreign governments. About 20% goes to the U.S. military, he said.
The company has 25 salespeople working from around the world.
About five of the 10 workers in OC are set to move, according to Garville. The company plans to expand its workforce to 72 during the next three years, he said.
Commerce Overseas has held back on hiring in the county during the past two years in anticipation of the move.
A major draw for the company is a large number of ex-military workers in North Carolina who are willing to work for lower wages than in OC, Garville said.
In North Carolina, Commerce Overseas might pay workers weekly wages of $721 plus benefits. In OC, it would pay closer to $1,000 per week.
The company is set to invest more than $4 million into the Kinston facility during the next three years, Garville said. It will house a manufacturing plant, distribution and warehouse space.
It originally was set up to attract bigger companies such as Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., but that never happened.
About 350 aerospace companies are in North Carolina and employ about 23,000 people.
