Company officials say it's proof the medical device industry is alive and well. Rogers manufacturer Metro Mold and Design opened a big new plant in Brooklyn Park. It employs 50 people right now, but there's room for 250 workers.
The company has long been known for years for creating plastic products for industrial customers including parts for fuel cells, plastic containers and printer components. The move to add medical device parts to their production line came a couple years ago.
Company chairman Tim Holland says its been something he's wanted to do for years. "After '09, one of the worst years we've ever seen, we couldn't forget about the plan, the medical vision that we had the plan we wanted to do," Holland told VIP's at a ribbon cutting ceremony last week.
Soon after they started, they were getting so many medical device orders, the company was bursting at the seams at its plant in Rogers.
"People could hardly work anymore that's why we moved down here," says Holland.
The new Brooklyn Park layout offers 100,000 square feet of space.
"It's nice to be involved in some new technologies that might not be out on the market yet," says Aaron Snow who manages one of the super-clean production rooms.
Now, company officials hope medical manufacturing will help double Metro Mold's annual revenue from the $50 million a year company it is now.
"It's absolutely exciting, the opening of this facility is something I've been dreaming about since 1997," says Holland. "So it's just an amazing and exiting opportunity. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but I'm excited."
The building's renovation costs were above Metro Mold's budget. So with help from city and state economic development experts, the company found more than $1 million in government assistance to renovate and open the Brooklyn Park plant.
Mike Johnson, reporting
news_mjohnson@twelve.tv
July 2, 2012