Nypro Inc. plans to build 10 more factories within the next two years in China, doubling the number of its facilities there as the company continues its rapid push into that market.
Specific locations have not been set, but President and Chief Executive Officer Brian Jones said the company will double its employment in China, from 7,000 now, as it sees its business base there broaden from an initial focus on telecommunications into health-care, consumer and automotive markets.
``I'm pretty confident that we will double people and machines in the next 18 months,'' Jones said in a Jan. 10 telephone interview from the company's Clinton, Mass., headquarters. ``Our plan is to double in the next 18-24 months.''
Nypro announced its 10th plant in the country in December, a contract manufacturing site in Guangzhou, following an October announcement that it was building its first plant in China combining metals and plastics injection molding operations.
Spokesman Al Cotton said several more plants are in the pipeline but have not been disclosed.
The new factories will be split between domestic and export markets. More than 50 percent of the company's business in China now is for domestic consumption there, Jones said.
About 300 million people in China have some degree of purchasing power, he added.
Jones said the growth in China will not pull Nypro work from the United States, but rather is new business. ``I don't think any of this is coming out of the United States,'' he said.
He noted that the U.S. manufacturing market is starting to look up, and economic numbers in December improved.
Still, 14,000 employees in China will represent huge growth for the firm, which currently has 12,000 employees worldwide. Nypro expects to post more than $900 million in sales this year from more than 60 factories in 17 countries.
Nypro reported that 21 percent of its sales in fiscal 2004, ended July 3, were in China and 42 percent in the United States.
Jones said some of the new plants will be near existing Nypro locations, like Shanghai.