2012 Member Services Guide

AGriculture & AerospAce

thrive in skagit county

Economic Development Association of Skagit County

waShington BulB company

commeRcial aiRcRaft inteRioRS employeeS in aft galley

Agriculture & AerospAce

thrive in Skagit County
In tests going back to 1925, Skagit County farmland soils are said to be in the top one-percent in the world for quality and yields. The soils here in the valley are a significant contributor to worldwide agricultural production. Washington State produces about 75-percent of the total US production of frozen red raspberries, and a whopping 95-percent of that comes from Whatcom and Skagit Counties, according to the 2010 Skagit County Agricultural Statistics report produced by Washington State University, Skagit County Extension. Skagit County has 11,500 acres in potato production, 1,000 acres in cauliflower and broccoli, and some 1,100 acres in tulips, daffodils, and iris bulbs. Skagit and Snohomish Counties, WSU reports, produce nearly 75-percent of the US supply of spinach and cabbage seed and nearly 95-percent of the US table beet seed. Skagit Countys heritage of agricultural plenty supplies the worlds dinner tables. The Knutzen family began farming in Skagit County in 1894, as the look, feel and soil of the place, says matriarch LouAnn Knutzen, reminded that first generation of Knutzens to arrive here of their native Denmark. Six generations later, the Knutzens are still farming in Skagit County, producing red, white and

By Stacie Zinn RoBeRtS

kagit County has long been known as a center of agriculture. With some of the best soils on the planet, the finest quality potatoes and berries grow here. We produce a high percentage of the beet and cabbage seed used to plant crops worldwide. And Skagit County produces more tulips than any other location in North America. Only Holland grows more tulips than we do. So its no surprise that agriculture is an important economic driver in our local economy. While traditional agriculture thrives here in the verdant Skagit Valley, another industry, too, has blossomed. Aerospace has found fertile soil here. Situated just 30 miles north of the aerospace powerhouse of Boeing in Everett, Skagit County is blessed not just with good soil, but also by an ideal location. This location has helped the aerospace industry in Skagit County take flight. What is it about Skagit County that allows for two seemingly divergent industries to thrive side-by-side? We asked some of the business leaders in both industries whove chosen to make Skagit County their personal and professional home, and found some surprising crossovers in the process.

yellow potatoes, as well as rotation crops of wheat and grasses, on 2,000 acres. Knutzen Farms potatoes are shipped not just locally, but to places as far away as Asian countries along the Pacific Rim. The company employs about a dozen full time staff but that number increases to 50 during harvest season. Being located in an agricultural center like the Skagit Valley creates economies of scale says Kraig Knutzen, 5th generation on the family farm. Access to agricultural trucking, fertilizer companies and other suppliers that service the entire Skagit agricultural infrastructure makes it more cost effective for individual farmers to do business. In addition, says Konnie McCutchin, also 5th generation, support services such as the valleys 10 packing houses make distribution of goods easier for Skagit growers as a whole. Collaborative efforts among farmers, as created by such local organizations as the Skagit Red Potato Growers Association, allows neighboring farmers to share ideas and methodologies. Konnie is highly involved in the Skagit Red Potato Growers Association. Her father Roger and brother Kraig have both served as Chairman of the National Potato Board, and Roger served on the EDASC Board of Directors. While Knutzen Farms began as a

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were able to resume operations once the war ended. They created a legacy for their grandchildren, eight of whom operate the company. Ryan Sakuma, a member of the EDASC Board of Directors, serves as Farm President for Sakuma Bros. Today Sakuma Bros. has 150 year-round employees, but their staff increases to about 900 seasonally. Up to 50-percent of Sakuma Bros. Skagit-grown fruit is shipped internationally, and many of the farms frozen berries are used in the yogurts and ice creams of national companies. The yield and quality of blueberries grown in the Skagit Valley is exceptionally high compared to the Midwest because of our cooler summer temperatures that allow the fruit to ripen slowly. This results in more sugar, producing sweeter fruit, according to WSU Extension. Ryan Sakuma says Western Washington, and Skagit County, are blessed with a geographic advantage when it comes to berry production. On the growing side, we are the last growing region in the continental US that produces blueberries and blackberries. So

growing season, Ryan Sakuma says, there are no US blueberries available until spring. In every niche area, whether youre the first or theres a break, it tends to grow demand. Our demand, at the end (of the US harvest), is pretty good. So pricing is decent and that is a factor of our climate, Sakuma says. Alf Christianson Seed has been producing vegetable seed for nearly 90 years in the Skagit Valley. A worldwide leader in both table beet and spinach seed production, Alf Christianson Seed was purchased a decade ago by Japan-based Sakata Seed. The company expanded in 2011 to a new 127,000-square-foot facility at the Port of Skagit in Burlington. The larger facility allows the company to increase its seed capacity by some 40-percent, with the ability to process 200,000 lbs. of seed on a daily basis, and a total warehouse capacity of roughly 7,500 bins or 7.5 million lbs. of vegetable seed. The opening of Alf Christianson Seeds new facility is the culmination of a planning process, and legislative effort, that began in 2004. Spearheaded by then-

the knutZen family knutZen faRmS potatoeS

farming family using traditional farming practices, with each generation, improvements to products and procedures have been implemented to increase quality and yield. When I started 20 years ago, says Kraig Knutzen, we planted by hand. Now the fields are all planted by GPS that drives the tractor for you. A diorama of Knutzen Farms family photos shows the progression from the earliest generation to today. The family motto is printed below: Incorporating the Knowledge of the Past with the Insight of the Future. Sakuma Bros. is a major producer of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and apples in Skagit County, farming 1,000 acres here. The Sakuma family came to the valley from Japan in 1939, after a short stint on Bainbridge Island. Several family members fought in World War II, while other family members were interned in detention camps set up to house Japanese immigrants during the war. It was through their own determination, coupled with the kindness of some of their Skagit neighbors who care took the family farm during that dark period, that the Sakumas retained their farmland and

after we finish, you have to wait for either Argentina or Chile to produce those fruit, Ryan Sakuma says. The harvest season for strawberries runs mid-June through about mid-July. Raspberries are harvested for about six weeks, usually starting on July 4th. Blueberries can be harvested mid-July into October. After the Washington/Oregon

State Representative David Quall, (in conjunction with Reps. Morris, Pettigrew, Kristiansen, Pearson, Talcott & Linville), and with the support of the Economic Development Association of Skagit County, a bill before the state legislature in Olympia, (HB 1523), extended a sales tax and use tax exemption for the construction of new facilities to be used

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for the conditioning of vegetable seeds. Quall said the Alf Christianson staff found fertile soil when they approached him to help them in the legislature, as Quall had long been a supporter of agricultural issues. The bill passed in 2006, and created the economic atmosphere for Alf Christianson Seed to create the state-ofthe-art facility. Alf Christianson Seed has 54 full-time employees on-staff, with an additional 200 seasonal staff on the payroll. We expect, over the next three-tofive years, potential double digit growth in the Alf Christianson overall business, adding staff and investment in the facility, says Dave Armstrong, president & CEO of Sakata America Holding, Inc. Alf Christiansons long history in the Skagit Valley, Armstrong says, contributes to the companys continued success. The tenure of the staff counts for a lot in our industry. We have a very experienced local staff and a lot of partner farms involved in our network. The agronomic infrastructure is here. The soil, the climate. All of that intrinsically contributes to the Alf Christianson business. Washington Bulb is the largest tulip bulb producer in the United States. Spread over 1,000 acres in Mount Vernon are 350 fields of tulips, 500 acres of daffodils and 150 acres of iris, plus 600 acres of wheat as a rotation crop. The more than 70 million cut flowers grown at Washington Bulb are shipped all over the US annually, and tens of millions of bulbs are shipped throughout the US and Canada each year. Skagit County has approximately 450 acres in tulip field production and accounts for 75-percent of all tulips grown in the United States. Altogether, more than 1,000 acres of tulips, daffodils, and iris are grown in Skagit County, according to WSU, and each summer, approximately 20 million flower bulbs are harvested here in the valley. About 75 million cut flowers are grown in greenhouses and fields, accounting for over 50-percent of overall sales. Skagit County is known worldwide for its annual Tulip Festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of people over the month-long celebration every April. Whats really made the difference in the success of Washington Bulb, says Leo Roozen, president of the company, was the addition of 16 acres of greenhouses. Now, along with the field tulips harvested for three months in the spring, bulbs and fresh flowers are grown and sold out of the greenhouses all year long. Conveyor belts move bulbs through their planting and growing cycle, and temperature con-

waShington BulB company tuilipS the cuRRent geneRation of Sakuma BRoS. faRmS

trolled greenhouses simulate springtime conditions optimal for tulip development. Along with the Washington Bulb wholesale production operation, a retail sister company, Roozengarde, sells cut flowers every day of the year at www. tulips.com , and serves as the epicenter of the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. William and Helen Roozen emigrated to the Skagit Valley from Holland where their family had grown tulips for generations going back to the 1700s. They found the soil and climate to be similar to that

of Holland, conducive to bulb production. The family purchased 2,000 acres of land in Mount Vernon in 1955 and watched the business grow ever since. Leo Roozen says his father William, could think like a bulb, meaning he had the knack to know what the plant needed and when. He passed that passion down to his children. In many ways, a traditional business such as farming benefits from the advances of more high-tech industries. Global positioning satellites help Knutzen Farms plow straighter fields. Computer

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driven conveyor belts and planting systems improve bulb and flower yields at Washington Bulb. Futuristic advances are all around us here in Skagit Valley. Those advances are no more evident than at the companies in the valley that help airplanes and the next generation of spacecraft grow wings. The aerospace industry is a major employer in the State of Washington. More than 82,000 skilled workers are directly employed in aerospace spread over 650 companies, according to the Washington State Department of Commerce. The state employs 17-percent of all US aerospace workers including 6,500 aerospace engineers and 30,000 manufacturing workers. Aerospace is highly influenced by the success of Boeing, headquartered in Everett, and the industry employs 44 out of every 1,000 workers in Washington state, the highest per capita in the country. Hexcel is a company that develops and manufactures a strong yet lightweight composite honeycomb material used in the components of airplanes, helicopters and other industrial applications. The company is headquartered in Connecticut and has more than 4,000 employees worldwide. In 1990, after working with the staff at EDASC to find a suitable location to expand their business, Hexcel opened its 90,000-square-foot facility at the Port of Skagit in Burlington. The company now employs more than 100 people here. The Burlington Hexcel plant manufactures composite honeycomb material used in airplanes for Boeing and Airbus. Its an exciting time to be in aerospace, says Jim Collins, Hexcels Burlington plant manager. New airplanes are being developed with the 787, with the A350, and a new generation of 737. So theres a variety of new energy-efficient aircraft that are being developed. With the new aircraft theres a desire to get more energy-efficient materials to make the planes lighter, so theres more use of composites in the new aircraft. All of this, Collins says, adds up to increased demand for Hexcels materials and products. Were looking for continued growth here. We definitely look at adding more jobs. Were anticipating another 10-percent growth in 2012. Well be expanding and we have the capability to add more people on off-shifts as well. We work 24-hours a day, five days a week. Our second and third shifts arent fully staffed so we have room to grow, Collins says. At Janicki Industries, headquartered in

hexcel coRpoRation flexcoRe

Sedro-Woolley, the news is also good. John Janicki, who grew up in the valley and is president of Janicki Industries, says some upgrades are being made at the company that promise an expanded product line and steady employment for their nearly 500 employees. Started in 1993, the company began making molds and machined composites for the marine industry. Tooling and specialized large-scale, high precision composites and exotic metal projects for the aerospace industry soon followed. Janicki does work for Boeing and partners with NASA to help create the next generation of space vehicles. They are a very technical company. One in five employees is an engineer. John Janicki says the company will expand from making the tooling for airplane parts to making the parts themselves. Were not going to get to make a wing. But were going to get to hopefully make some smaller components. Some part of a plane, it could be an engine column or doorframe. The commercial aerospace market is pretty strong and there are only a few major players so weve got that opportunity, he says. He says the transition just makes sense for Janicki Industries. Its a pretty simple lead in for us. We know how things are made because weve made the tools and we know the characteristics of the materials. We have a pretty well-trained workforce in laying things out and making things, he says. Part of the investment in the company expansion includes bringing in some new equipment to their operation. Well have a new autoclave here the first of this year. An autoclave is like a big oven thats a pressure cooker. It goes up to 400 degrees and 150 psi, thats what they use to process these components and were going to have one of the only large autoclaves outside of a major aerospace company. Boeing has lots of them but they dont rent them to other companies. It will put us in the parts business, he says. The result will be a positive for Skagit County as a whole. There will be some hiring of new employees but its mostly going to make it more steady, create a more stable workforce to stay closer to the 500 mark, Janicki says. Headquartered in Burlington, Volant is a company that specializes in reconfiguring the interiors of airplanes--everything from seats, to galleys, to lavatories. Started in 1988 under the name International Aero Interiors, the company was sold in 2008 and the name changed to Volant. Mike Guagenti, president & CEO, says that once the company was purchased, the decision was made to remain in the valley for several reasons. The easy access to Boeing, just south in Everett, was of benefit because Volant has

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the airline mergers. Jerry Welch was one of the founders of International Aero. He worked with the Port of Skagit and EDASC to move that company from Paine Field in Everett to Skagit County. When he sold out of the company in 2002, he and wife Barbara opened Commercial Aircraft Interiors the following year. Out of CAIs 115,000-square-foot facility in Burlington, the company refurbishes and manufactures airplane parts as a certified Federal Aviation Administration repair station. The company also constructs aircraft harness assemblies with high-performance wire and cable. Currently, CAI has 50 employees. Welch says his company is experiencing growth and he expects to expand his workforce in the first quarter of 2012. Business is really coming back and things are opening up. We are working on some really nice programs we hope to get, Welch says. We hope to put on probably over 100 employees in the next year. Even though he sells some surplus parts to Boeing and its nice that Heath Tecna isnt far from us Jerry Welch says he really could operate his business anywhere. But he chooses to live and work in Skagit Valley. We could really set this up most anywhere because we dont need to be on an airport for what we do. Everything is shipped in and shipped out. Its the quality of life here. This is truly Gods Country. I have traveled all over the world in my career edco inc. aeRoSpace hydRaulic fluid teSt equipment with airlines, from Asia to Europe, and CEO, purchased the company in 2008, theres nothing like home. This is a beautithey had 55 employees. In November ful state, Welch says. 2011, the company had 110. By the end of Quality of life was also a deciding facDecember, they were up to 130 employtor on starting his business here in Skagit ees. County in the 1970s for Mark Vorobik, Weve doubled our workforce in the president of EDCO, Inc., a custom manulast 12 months. We have very strong facturing and fabrication company located expectations for 2012. Well end 2011 near Bayview in Mount Vernon. as the best years since we acquired the First I chose where I wanted to live. business, and 2012 will be a record year Then I tried to find a job. I couldnt find a for us, Guagenti says. We see an increase job so I started a company, Vorobik says. in demand in the market to reconfigure EDCO was created in 1975 in Edison. In commercial aircraft interiors with all of 1991, EDCO moved to a 24,000-squarea license agreement with Boeing and does a significant amount of work on Boeingmade equipment. But having other aerospace companies in the valley, along with Heath Tecna to the north in Bellingham, was also a factor. Being in this marketplace allows us to tap into people with the experience, says Guagenti, referring to both suppliers and potential employees. Its not critical but its certainly beneficial. The workforce at the Burlington facility also plays a factor in the companys success. Weve got a good group of employees. Some have been with the company 20 years. Burlington has a family culture and we want to retain those employees. The workforce we get in Burlington is hard working, knowledgeable about aerospace, most are from the area, its a family type culture, and theres very little turnover, Guagenti says. When Guagenti and partner Ian Rollo,

foot facility in Mount Vernon. The company makes everything from fishing reels, to steel tanks and platforms, to complex testing equipment for airplane systems. Aerospace-related manufacturing makes up about 20-percent of the companys business. For aerospace, we make mostly what they call functional test equipment and support for the assembly lines. Its used to test systems on the aircraft like hydraulics or potable water or waste water or any of the pneumatic systems. We also make tugs for aircraft. Its a moving assembly line, so our vehicle tows the plane through final assembly and we bring all the utilities into it. We can lift the whole front of the plane 15 inches, Vorobik says. Pioneer Aerofab Company, Inc., is located at the Port of Skagit in Burlington. Instead of a facility full of heavy machinery like most of the other aerospacerelated companies in the valley, sewing machines are the equipment of choice at Pioneer Aerofab. The company employs a staff of highly skilled seamstresses who create aircraft interior products such as crew rest furniture, interior curtains, cargo furnishings, ground support equipment straps, engine covers and tarps that cover airplane parts. All are made to exacting standards, often flame retardant and sturdy enough to stand up to constant wear. Pioneer Aerofab has been in business since 1980. Tim Williamson purchased the company in 2001 from his father-inlaw Elwood Tresner. Today the company employs 18 staff members who work out of a 12,000-square-foot facility at the Port of Skagit in Burlington. Craig Beecroft, who heads up sales and new business development for Pioneer Aerofab, says the location in Burlington is ideal because they are halfway between Boeing and Heath Tecna, with easy access to I-5. Their facility is even located right next door to the Fed-Ex at the Port, for easy shipping. The company has experienced steady growth over the past 10 years and Williamson says more good things are to come. Willilamson attributes the health of the aerospace industry, coupled with the companys hiring of Beecroft to the staff, with their stellar growth. In 2010, the company doubled their business. This past year, 2011, was the companys biggest year yet. In a nationwide economy with hardly any good news to share, Skagit County has a positive story to tell. Both agriculture and aerospace thrive here and should continue to do so for many years to come.

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