Santa Ana military parachute maker Guardian Parachute is preparing to set up a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Mexico City that will churn out 1,000 parachutes a year for the Mexican military.
“We’re looking to get a commitment from the Vicente Fox administration,” said marketing manager Rick Velazquez. “And in the long haul, we’ll be looking to use that plant to make parachutes for South America, as well.”
Guardian has been doing business with Mexico for 10 years, Velazquez said.
About 60% of the company’s sales are to foreign militaries in more than 30 countries, with the rest of its sales going to the U.S. military.
Late last month, the Pentagon awarded the company a contract worth more than $6 million, for parachutes to be made at Guardian’s 45,000-square-foot Santa Ana plant.
“We’re prepared to expand if necessary,” Velazquez said. “Business is normal at this point, but as the attacks (in Afghanistan) continue, there will be a need for more parachutes.”
Velazquez said the Santa Ana plant likely will churn out 1,700 parachutes this year, compared to 1,300 last year.
The company has 75 OC employees, and plans to add another 15 over the next year.
Guardian makes military parachutes for conventional and special forces, airdrop, autonomous precision aerial delivery systems, ejection seats, recovery systems for unmanned aerial vehicles and weapons-delivery systems.
The company’s competitors include Hope Mills, N.C.-based Irvin Aerospace Inc., which has a marketing and engineering facility in Santa Ana and is a subsidiary of the UK’s Irvin Group. San Diego-based Paranetics Technology Inc. is another rival.
Guardian is a division of FXC Corp., a Santa Ana designer and maker of components for ejection seats and aerial drops. FXC recently won a U.S. Defense Department contract to develop sensors for airplane ejection seats.
FXC was founded in 1973 and acquired Guardian in 1976.
Guardian is getting help in its Mexico negotiations from the World Trade Center Association’s Los Angeles-Long Beach chapter as well as the Santa Ana-based California-Mexico Trade Assistance Center, which is run by Santa Ana’s Rancho Santiago Community College District. n
