They love LA
<p>Chris Nicol, plant manager for LA Aluminum Casting Company, checks his clearance while installing a new casting machine Thursday, February 4 at the Hayden manufacturing facility. The twin spindle live tool turning center cost $300,000 and will allow the plant increased production for its multi-million dollar military contract work.</p>
HAYDEN - LA Aluminum Casting Co., a Hayden permanent mold aluminum foundry and machine shop, has received two new multimillion-dollar contracts this year, and has plans to expand its facilities.
In 2009, the company at 1905 W. Miles Ave. had sales that beat the year-earlier period by 25 percent.
"New contracts with the military and long-term contracts with our existing customers have kept us busier than ever before," said Michelle Richter, sales and marketing manager for LA Aluminum.
She said the company expects this year to beat 2009 by 20 percent, reaching $5.2 million in total sales. The company sells primarily to original equipment manufacturers.
The company is owned by Robert Oswald and it employs 43 people, though it plans to hire up to 12 more people through Express Employment Professional in Post Falls, she said. It will hire machinists and foundry workers.
LA Aluminum makes aluminum castings or parts for assembly into wind generators, fuel tanks, helicopters or airplanes, communication equipment, dental equipment and agricultural equipment.
The company has done well within the nation's weak economy because of its diversified group of customers, Richter said. And it hasn't hurt that it doesn't sell to automobile manufacturers, she added.
One new contract, for $2.15 million, is with an Indiana company that makes large pillow tanks that hold either fuel or water, she said. LA Aluminum will manufacture aluminum gaskets for the tanks.
It has a similar new contract, for $2.4 million this year and $4.2 million next year, with a Mississippi company, Richter said.
She said LA Aluminum doesn't expect its sales to slow down any time soon and actually plans to increase the square footage of its facilities at its current location by at least 50 percent in the next 12 months.
It plans to spend about $500,000 for a new building, Richter said.
"We are looking to build another building to house the machine shop so we can extend the foundry into our entire manufacturing space," Richter said.
The new building must be constructed soon so it can more quickly turn around the orders it has coming in, and so it will have more inventory space, she said. The machine shop will go into the new building, which would likely have about 10,000 square feet of space. It currently has about 20,000 square feet of space, all owned by the company.
Last year, the company spent $600,000 on new equipment to finish castings, she said.
"The new equipment is part of the first step in the process of restructuring our machine shop," she said.
LA Aluminum has been in business since 1947, originally in California, and has been in Idaho since 1972, she said.