Hong Kong consumer electronics maker Kessel International Holdings Ltd. has set up its U.S. headquarters in Irvine.
Kessel Inc. currently employs 12 people in Irvine with plans to more than triple local employment to about 40 in the next year. Most of the workers will handle sales, marketing and customer support. Company officials made the announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show trade show in Las Vegas last week.
“We selected OC as the North American head office because of proximity to the ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles, and because of the highly qualified and well-educated workforce here,” said Jack Brantley, vice president marketing for Kessel. “We also liked the quality-of-life factors here.”
For now, Kessel has set up in a small amount of office and warehouse space on Alton Parkway. But the company expects to move to a bigger location in Irvine within a year to accommodate its new hires, according to Brantley.
The company plans to sell some 100 types of its brand name products here, including digital organizers, e-mail phones, language translators, electronic scales and body-fat measurement devices. Kessel also plans to market warning devices that directly receive information from government weather offices about tornadoes and other severe conditions.
Kessel International Holdings, founded in 1976, counted about $130 million in sales for the year ended March 31, 2000. The company makes products in China’s Guangdong Province, with facilities that cover more than 350,000 square feet. n
