Control Components Expanding South County HQ
By CHRIS CZIBORR
Control Components Inc., a Rancho Santa Margarita maker of control valves for power plants and pipelines, is expanding its headquarters based on what it calls steady growth in world energy markets.
The company is doubling its office space to 54,000 square feet and adding another 10,500 square feet to its manufacturing facilities, which are at 53,500 square feet right now, said Herb Miller, vice president of technology.
Control Components also is adding a research and development test area that’s set to span 4,000 square feet. The company now keeps its test equipment outdoors, Miller said. Control had been renting space nearby during the expansion, which is wrapping up, according to Miller.
Control, part of Britain’s IMI Proprietary Ltd., had sales of $180 million last year. This year, company officials expect to bring in $200 million to $210 million in sales with about a third coming from products made in Orange County.
The company has 280 employees in OC and 800 worldwide, including production sites in South Korea, Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and Osaka, Japan.
Control plans to add 20 people locally as well as an extra 30 to 50 technical salespeople worldwide. Miller said the company’s salespeople all have advanced engineering degrees because of the complexities of Control’s products.
The company has been growing sales by about 15% a year for the past few years, Miller said, crediting that growth to a global marketing strategy in which countries with stronger economies offset weaker performing ones.
“Our markets are worldwide, so we’re not tied to any one economy,” Miller said. “Our markets are predominantly in the electric power generation market and in the oil and gas transportation and production market,both those markets have been very, very hot lately.”
The company also makes control valves for offshore platforms and non-pipeline gas transportation.
Miller said the U.S. is the hottest electric power market right now followed by Europe.
“Two years ago the hottest electricity markets were in Asia,” he said. “For oil and gas, it was the North Sea.”
Miller said the company’s valve designs allow users to precisely control fluid velocity, assuring a smooth control process, he said.
“When you keep velocities down you minimize the damage through noise and erosion that can undermine control inside a valve,” he said. “It’s like a speed bump in a parking lot,if you’ve got a lot of speed bumps your traffic goes pretty slow and you don’t tear things up.”
The company owns its Rancho Santa Margarita facilities, and has expanded onto land it has owned for the past six years.
The company’s biggest customers include Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp., San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., Japan Gas Corp., Norway’s Statoil ASA, Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Kansas City, Mo.-based Black & Veitch.
“Black & Veitch is building a lot of power plants along with Bechtel and Fluor,” Miller said.
Control rivals include Marshalltown, Iowa-based Fisher Controls International Inc., a division of St. Louis, Mo.-based Emerson.
