Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc., the Pullman, Wash.-based maker of power-protection systems and other technology for power generators, crested $300 million in sales last year, according to company spokeswoman Susan Fagan, up from about $245 million in total revenue in 2006. The company has averaged 18 percent sales growth annually for the past several years, and it’s on pace to increase sales by double-digit percentages this year, she says.

Pullman-based Schweitzer Engineering Labs continues on rapid growth trajectory.

One of the largest privately held companies in Washington state is getting bigger quickly.

Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc., the Pullman, Wash.-based maker of power-protection systems and other technology for power generators, crested $300 million in sales last year, according to company spokeswoman Susan Fagan, up from about $245 million in total revenue in 2006. The company has averaged 18 percent sales growth annually for the past several years, and it’s on pace to increase sales by double-digit percentages this year, she says.

Long term, the company is projecting that it will double its current sales volume in five years, Fagan says.

Kevin Fritch, vice president of operations at Schweitzer, says the company’s growth is occurring in new markets, new market sectors and new products.

“We’re not trying to design products the customer wants,” Fritch says. “We’re trying to design the product the customer will want.”
To keep pace with demand, the company had hired 151 employees through the first four months of this year, with plans to hire a total of 330 people this year, says Janet Poitra, a human-resources manager for the company. Last year, the company had planned to hire 225 people, Poitra says, but it ended up hiring closer to 300 people.

As of mid-May, the company had 1,572 employees and 73 new hires who hadn’t started yet. At that time, it also had 142 open positions.
Of its employees, about 1,100 work on the Pullman campus. Others work at the company’s 60-plus satellite offices throughout the world.
With about 1,100 employees, the company is the second-largest employer in Pullman, behind Washington State University, the 18,000-student school whose campus is near Schweitzer Labs.

Growing beyond Pullman?

But while the company will continue to grow, one question that has emerged is how much of its future growth will be in Pullman, where Edmund O. Schweitzer III started the company in 1982.

Fagan says that because of concerns about Washington state’s regulatory climate, the company has sent 10 open letters to other states, including Idaho, asking for information about expansion opportunities. “We are hearing back,” she says.

Schweitzer Labs constructed a new headquarters building in Pullman and expanded its manufacturing facility there last year. Fagan says it has enough space to accommodate growth in the short term. The company would remain headquartered in Pullman, but future facilities could be located in another state, she says.

One immediate need the company has is another hangar. The company has three airplanes now and is scheduled to take delivery on another one in the first quarter of 2009. The company occupies two hangars at the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport currently, and it needs a third such structure. It’s working with the Pullman-Moscow airport, but it’s unclear whether there will be space for Schweitzer there, Fagan says. As a backup plan, the company also is looking at airports in Coeur d’Alene and in Lewiston, Idaho, she says.

Also, regardless of where Schweitzer Labs opts to expand in the future, the company hopes to find a partner with which it can develop a hotel at its Pullman office park, Fagan says. The company doesn’t have a timetable for development of a hotel at this time, but it hopes to add such a facility so it has a place on its campus to house guests and prospective employees.

In general, if Schweitzer Labs does opt to continue to grow in Pullman, it has plenty of space to do so. The company owns 130 acres at the north end of the town, 82 acres of which are undeveloped. Its developed campus has 10 buildings with a total of 500,000 square feet of floor space.

Domestically, the company already has 37 offices throughout the U.S. A division of the company, E. O. Schweitzer Manufacturing, is located in Lake Zurich, Ill., and specializes in fault-indicator technology.

International Growth

In addition to its domestic presence, Schweitzer Engineering is expanding its international operations. This summer, the company plans to bring on line a new manufacturing facility in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. The facility will include a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, a 30,000-square-foot engineering center and a 7,000-square-foot events center. The company currently operates a relatively small manufacturing facility in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and it will move those operations to the larger facility in San Luis Potosí once it’s completed.

Schweitzer Engineering currently operates 28 international offices and has customers in 122 countries.

For more information visit www.selinc.com

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