News

posted on 10 May 2008 17:40

Yesterday's report of Plasmon leasing a new Colorado Springs office and entering into a contract manufacturing arrangement are two pieces of a deliberate plan to strengthen Plasmon's base in the USA.

According to a report in the Colorado Springs-based Gazette.com, it is moving its existing Colorado Springs facility into the new InterQuest Office Park facility of which it has an option to lease the whole building, an additional 10,000 square feet on top of the current 44,000 square feet. It currently  has 110,000 square feet on Arrowswest Drive in Colorado Springs and this lease is coming to an end.

By outsourcing manufacturing it gains faster manufacturing and needs fewer people and space itself. Some of its current manufacturing employees may be offered jobs with Western Electronics, the contract manufacturer.

The first manufacturing stages of the G-Series optical libraries will be carried out by Western Electronics with the late stages and testing being handled by Plasmon itself. The net effect is to cut manufacturing time in half.

Plasmon has 130 employees in Colorado Springs and a small number of these will be laid off. It used to empy 210 people there but has progressively downsized.

CEO Steve Murphy said: "We feel that this is a growth move rather than a defensive move. It will allow us to support customers better, faster and with improved quality."

This is Murphy's law in action; run the business to make money and focus on growth markets, meaning archiving appliances.

^{[Chris Mellor, editor.]}