Wausaukee Composites Inc. is embarking on a three-year, $4.5 million expansion.
The company already has added 40 jobs this year and is hoping to add more than 200 in three years.
``It's a multiyear expansion program. We're investing in anticipated growth with investments in production equipment, facility upgrades, robotic automation, materials handling and capacity expansion,'' President Dave Lisle said May 15 by telephone.
The Wausaukee-based company works with highly engineered composites and fiberglass, and Lisle said growth is targeted in three areas: mass transit, industrial trucks and tractors, and wind energy. He said details on the expansion will be forthcoming as contracts are finalized.
The job-growth target of 224 jobs in three years was announced in a May 10 news release by Wis. Gov. Jim Doyle. The state plans to give the company $925,000 in Community Development Zone credits and a $75,000 training grant.
Lisle said the money is contingent on adding jobs and is based on future project awards from the Fortune 500 original equipment manufacturers Wausaukee supplies.
Wausaukee is planning to add 40 jobs by the end of the year to take care of mass transit contracts it has received. Lisle said the company will supply components for New York rail cars and to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority as part of a deal with Alstom Transport, a French company with an assembly plant in Hornell, N.Y. Wausaukee will supply interior and exterior components.
Alstom won a $150 million contract in October 2004 to supply WMATA with 120 subway cars.
Lisle also said Wausaukee will supply mass transit components to Kinkisharyo International LLC of Palm Harbor, Fla., which is a general contractor to Phoenix Valley Metro Transit Authority.
``The mass transit market is new [for Wausaukee], but in the last 2½ years we've had good success in this new segment, and we will continue to expand,'' he said.
Lisle said the company also supplies covers for medical imaging devices.
Wausaukee Composites is ISO 9001:2000-certified. It has a 100,000-square-foot facility in Wausaukee and a 50,000-square-foot plant in Gillett, Wis. It does design, tooling, prototyping and assembly.