Hydraflow Breaks HQ Ground
By CHRIS CZIBORR
Hydraflow Inc., a Cerritos maker of hydraulic lines for defense and commercial aircraft, has broken ground on its new headquarters in Fullerton, a move the company expects to complete by year’s end.
The facility is set to cover 174,000 square feet, 150,000 square feet of which the company plans to use for manufacturing. Hydraflow now has 70,000 square feet in two buildings in Cerritos.
“We’re kind of crammed where we’re at right now and we do need additional office space,” said Dennis Ullrich, Hydraflow’s president.
Ullrich said the company expects to see increases in defense work this year. The company has 150 employees with no immediate plans for new hiring once the company moves to Orange County.
“It depends on how much business is coming in,” Ullrich said.
In the past four years, Hydraflow has seen relatively flat sales, Ullrich said. Last year, the company counted $36 million in revenue, he said.
Even with more defense work, Ullrich sees sales staying flat this year with the downturn in commercial aviation. Commercial work accounts for 70% of Hydraflow’s sales with defense grabbing the rest.
In 2003, though, Ullrich is forecasting a big increase in defense work.
“That’s going to change over the next two years where it’ll be about 50/50,” Ullrich said “And in 2003, I expect sales to go up with the implementation of the new military programs,but I can’t predict what that’s going to entail.”
The company’s defense customers include Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., Raytheon Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. About 25% of the company’s de-fense sales go to overseas clients.
Commercial cli-ents include Boe-ing, Europe’s Airbus SAS, Canada’s Bo-mbardier Inc., Bri-tain’s BAE Systems, Brazil’s Embraer-Empresa Brasileira de Aeron & #225;utica SA.
The new facility, designed by Irvine-based Ware Malcomb Architecture Planning Interiors, is being built to handle 10 years of projected growth. Irvine-based Snyder Langston is handling construction.
Hydraflow is relocating to land once occupied by Hughes Aircraft Co. in Fullerton. The sprawling former aerospace campus is being redeveloped as Amerige Heights, a community of about 1,400 homes, shops and some commercial space. Raytheon, which bought the defense arm of Hughes in 1997, has offices at the site.
Founded in 1961, Hydraflow is a family business owned by Ullrich and his father and sister.
“I only live about a mile from the Fullerton site,” Dennis Ullrich said.
