Fluidmaster Ramping Up New Tijuana Plant
By CHRIS CZIBORR
San Juan Capistrano plumbing products maker Fluidmaster Inc. is ramping up production at a 70,000-square-foot Tijuana plant it leased a few months back in a bid to boost output and cut costs.
“It’s a natural expansion of our business,the real world is that we’re faced with increasing pricing pressures from our customers,” said Fluidmaster Chief Financial Officer Terry Bland. “We’re also facing escalating costs such as workers’ comp, health benefits and inflationary wages.”
Fluidmaster doesn’t plan to scale back its Orange County workforce as a result of the new Baja California plant, Bland said.
“At this point we have no intention of cutting back our OC workforce,” he said. “Our TJ plant is just starting up, but in a couple years we’ll have a couple hundred people there.”
The plant, in Tijuana’s La Jolla Industrial Park, now has 100 workers. The company signed a $2 million, 6-year lease with Mexican real estate developer FinSA for the plant.
Bland didn’t say which Fluidmaster products will be made in Mexico. The company makes toilet flush valves, connectors for sinks and washers and other products.
Fluidmaster counts 200 workers in San Juan Capistrano as well as 100 temporary employees.
The company expects to hire locally for research and development in the next year or so, Bland said.
“We haven’t put those plans into action yet,” he said.
The company hired about 15 engineers last year at its headquarters. Fluidmaster has a distribution center in Tennessee and a Santa Fe Springs mold operation, Moldingmaster, which makes parts used to make the toilet valves.
Home improvement retailers including Home Depot Inc. and Lowe’s Cos. are Fluidmaster’s chief customers. Demand for lower prices from big retailers spurred Fluidmaster’s move to set up a Mexico facility, according to Bland.
“We sell to the large retailers and they want us to hold our prices,” Bland said. “That’s where a lot of the cost pressure comes from.”
Fluidmaster has chalked up double-digit percentage gains in yearly sales for the past 10 years. The privately held company doesn’t disclose revenue. The Business Journal estimates Fluidmaster’s annual sales at $130 million.
The company is looking to grow its global business, which currently makes up 15% of sales, according to Bland. Fluidmaster wants to expand sales to overseas retailers, he said.
“Our international sales are mainly to toilet makers rather than retail outlets,” he said.
Fluidmaster sells about 16 million flush valves in 85 countries each year, including the U.S. Rivals include Big Prairie, Ohio-based SeaLand Technology Inc.
Fluidmaster’s Tijuana plant was occupied for a short time last year by Clearwater, Fla., medical products maker Maxxim Medical Inc. The building originally was built for Fullerton-based Day Runner Inc., which shut down its Tijuana operations during its restructuring a couple of years back.
Jean-Paul de Kervor, president of Maquila Properties in La Jolla, represented Fluidmaster. Fred Sanders from AIE represented the landlord.
Baja’s border plants have been hit hard in the past year with several companies shutting down plants and moving production to China and elsewhere in Asia.
“The real estate market in general there is down,” de Kervor said. “A lot of the Asian companies are leaving and that is creating a bit of a vacuum there.”
