Technological watch
WP Manufacturing invests $1M to add capabilities following acquisition
Longmont, Colo.-based WP Manufacturing has invested about $1 million to expand to keep up with demand from reshoring customers.
"There's a lot of reshoring going on," CEO Dharmendra Patel told Plastics News. The company is receiving inquiries from new customers "on a weekly or daily basis" looking to reshore services and product from Asia, Patel said.
"We have started seeing that turn into a decent volume for us," he said.
WP, whose legal name is Cascade Manufacturing Inc., is now expanding to "strategically provide more services ... not just molding," Patel added. Its services currently include machining, tooling, assembly and packaging.
The company recently added two injection presses — a 22-ton and a 500-ton machine with a five-axis robot — installed a new assembly room and added further ISO certification for its Class-7 clean room.
When Patel and his son, Sam Patel, vice president of business development, took over the company in October 2021, WP had a team of about 50 employees. It's now grown to 70, he said.
"We were looking for opportunities to work on a project together and manufacturing made sense for us," said Sam Patel, who has a background in biomedical engineering. "We're both engineers by training," he said, and WP is "interested in bringing in new medical molding opportunities, adding new capabilities and really increasing our presence in the industry."
When they acquired the business, WP's clean room was being used for non-clean-room assembly, Sam Patel said.
"We took two empty offices, broke down the wall and put in a new assembly room … we got our clean room certified to Class 7 back in June," he said.
The company also hired two manufacturing sales teams, on the East and West Coasts, and hopes to add teams in the Midwest and Texas, he said.
It formed partnerships with hiring agencies to "have more hands on deck … different perspectives," he added, to address customers' needs as the company pursues new opportunities.
WP manufactures for global customers in defense, oil, consumer products and electronics, aerospace, solar and medical end markets.
"There's a lot of reshoring going on," CEO Dharmendra Patel told Plastics News. The company is receiving inquiries from new customers "on a weekly or daily basis" looking to reshore services and product from Asia, Patel said.
"We have started seeing that turn into a decent volume for us," he said.
WP, whose legal name is Cascade Manufacturing Inc., is now expanding to "strategically provide more services ... not just molding," Patel added. Its services currently include machining, tooling, assembly and packaging.
The company recently added two injection presses — a 22-ton and a 500-ton machine with a five-axis robot — installed a new assembly room and added further ISO certification for its Class-7 clean room.
When Patel and his son, Sam Patel, vice president of business development, took over the company in October 2021, WP had a team of about 50 employees. It's now grown to 70, he said.
"We were looking for opportunities to work on a project together and manufacturing made sense for us," said Sam Patel, who has a background in biomedical engineering. "We're both engineers by training," he said, and WP is "interested in bringing in new medical molding opportunities, adding new capabilities and really increasing our presence in the industry."
When they acquired the business, WP's clean room was being used for non-clean-room assembly, Sam Patel said.
"We took two empty offices, broke down the wall and put in a new assembly room … we got our clean room certified to Class 7 back in June," he said.
The company also hired two manufacturing sales teams, on the East and West Coasts, and hopes to add teams in the Midwest and Texas, he said.
It formed partnerships with hiring agencies to "have more hands on deck … different perspectives," he added, to address customers' needs as the company pursues new opportunities.
WP manufactures for global customers in defense, oil, consumer products and electronics, aerospace, solar and medical end markets.
This project has received funding from the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 837761.
