It’s beginning to look like the United Nations at Quonset Business Park, said Gov. Donald L. Carcieri – and that’s fine with him.
Three flags fly outside Hexagon Metrology Inc.’s new U.S. headquarters: the Rhode Island anchor, the U.S. Stars and Stripes, and Sweden’s gold cross on a field of blue. The company’s parent, Hexagon AB, is a $1.7 billion publicly traded, global technology company based in a Stockholm suburb.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
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Hexagon acquired Rhode Island-based Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. in 2001. It built the new plant at Quonset to better suit its needs as a manufacturer of high-tech precision measurement equipment.
“It’s exactly the kind of manufacturing facility we want to continue to keep here and grow here,” Car-cieri said at the Sept. 14 opening ceremony for the 110,000-square-foot plant.
“I can’t think of a better example of the innovative economy we are trying to create here in Rhode Island,” said Saul Kaplan, executive director of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation. Companies such as Hexagon, he said, offer “better, high-wage jobs.”
About 240 employees work for Hexagon Metrology at Quonset, said Bill Fetter, director of marketing for the company. They began moving from Brown & Sharpe’s old facility – just five miles away, and also in North Kingstown – in mid-August.
Rhode Island almost lost Hexagon and its jobs when a deal for state-backed financing of the new manufacturing facility was rejected by the General Assembly. Afterward, Hexagon looked into purchasing an existing facility in Connecticut. But that deal fell through, as well.
In the meantime, Rhode Island officials continued to work with Hexagon Metrology. Kaplan said that, along with a sales-tax abatement for materials used in the $13 million construction project, Hexagon also will get corporate income-tax reductions through the state’s Jobs Development Act.
The company’s incentive package also included an agreement whereby the company leases the 14-acre property from the state, Kaplan said, and each employee hired above the baseline of 228 reduces the lease payment by $1,000.
But, Kaplan said, if Hexagon Metrology were to reduce its work force, it would have to pay the state $2,000 per employee under 228.
“Thank you for convincing us to stay,” said Ola Rollén, president and CEO of Hexagon AB, who attended the opening. Not long ago, the century-old Brown & Sharpe was faltering, but “we’ve put in the effort … and made this ship sail again,” Rollén said. “We dominate this industry in North America today.”
The new facility includes 58,000 square feet of manufacturing space, which is about one-third of the space used at the Brown & Sharpe facility, Fetter said. “We’re anticipating we can double our production in one-third of the space.”
Fetter said the Brown & Sharpe facility was built in the 1960s, before the precision measurement equipment was invented. “It didn’t suit our needs.”
The new facility includes a more efficient layout and temperature-controlled rooms, where the metal will no longer expand from high heat, he said.
A 10,000-square-foot showroom and software training center occupy space near the entrance of the building. The showroom demonstrates the way Hexagon Metrology products can take measurements as small as tens of thousandths of an inch, for applications in quality control and part inspection in the manufacturing, automobile and aerospace industries.
“All are driven by sophisticated software,” Fetter said.
Each year, about 500 engineers, factory workers and programmers will be trained on software at the company’s new headquarters, he said.
“We are very excited to have them here,” Kaplan said. “They are a leader in the global marketplace. They will get stronger and better.”
