San Jose-based contract electronics maker Sanmina Corp. has opened a 100,000-square-foot plant in Costa Mesa with plans to hire at least 40 employees initially, according to plant manager Jim Ryan.
The new facility on Red Hill Avenue could house more employees, but for now Sanmina is waiting to see how demand unfolds with a softening in networking and other key technology segments.
“We don’t have a feel for the maximum,” Ryan said of the plant’s employment. “I’m hesitant to put a maximum on it.”
Sanmina already employs 400 people at fabrication plants in Irvine and Fountain Valley.
The Costa Mesa building, which has sophisticated features similar to a semiconductor fabrication plant, houses Sanmina’s Advanced Interconnect Manufacturing group, which previously was based in Irvine. The company said it could move its Irvine printed circuit board operation to Costa Mesa.
“This is the first printed circuit board facility to have virtually all manufacturing operations performed within a cleanroom environment, similar to a semiconductor fab,” said George Trinite, manager of Sanmina’s Advanced Interconnect Manufacturing group.
Sanmina, which counted $4 billion in sales in 2000, expects to see long-term growth for circuit boards used in high-speed networks. The Costa Mesa facility, acquired from Honeywell International Inc., stands to give Sanmina the ability to design products and carry them to high-volume production. By the end of the first year, Sanmina executives hope the plant will bring in $50 million in revenue.
“We should grow from there,” Ryan said.
OC’s electronic workforce played a big role in Sanmina’s decision to locate the new facility in Costa Mesa, Ryan said.
“We like being in Orange County a lot,” he said. “We like the visibility and the labor market here. We’ve heard companies say they were having problems with labor. We haven’t seen that at all.”
Sanmina executives didn’t see California’s energy crunch as a long-term threat when deciding to expand, said George Dudnikov, Sanmina’s senior vice president of new product development and strategic marketing.
“We’re good about conserving energy,” he said. “Good conservation should keep it at bay. There shouldn’t be a problem unless there are total blackouts, but so far there is nothing catastrophic.”
To boot, the company considers the new facility’s location next to John Wayne airport a big advantage. “We can have people just go in and out from there,” Dudnikov said. n
