The Laughlin-Wilt Group. Inc., a Beaverton, Ore.-based contract electronics manufacturer with a 125-employee plant in Lake Forest, is being acquired by St. Louis-based Viasystems Group Inc.
The deal isn’t expected to result in any layoffs at the Lake Forest site, according to a Laughlin-Wilt spokeswoman, who said her company is projected to double revenue to $100 million this year.
Contract electronics manufacturing is a growing niche in Orange County. Other players include Anaheim-based DDi Corp., Santa Ana-based Express Manufacturing Inc. and Toronto-based Celstica Inc., which is expanding into a 305,000-square-foot facility in Foothill Ranch.
The Laughlin-Wilt Group opened its 32,000-square-foot Lake Forest plant in 1998. The company’s main plant spans 75,000 square feet in Beaverton. The top Orange County-based official is Jay Wilt, who is the company’s vice president, chief operating officer and a co-founder.
Laughlin-Wilt Group provides engineering services and full-volume production of circuit boards and other electronics.
Viasystems Group Inc., which has trailing 12-month sales of $1.2 billion, is expected to close the acquisition next month. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Viasystems designs and produces electronics for customers such as Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and others. The company doesn’t have any operations in OC.
“Laughlin-Wilt’s strategic customer relationships and advanced manufacturing capabilities further enhance Viasystems’ penetration of the telecommunications sector,” said James N. Mills, chairman and chief executive officer of Viasystems, in a press release.
Viasystems Group has more than 23,000 employees and operates 31 manufacturing facilities in nine countries. It was formed in 1996 by the merger of Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst Inc. and Mills and Partners Inc. It went public this year, and as of last week had a market cap of $1.6 billion. n
