SPECIAL REPORT: Military Mfg

Despite decades of downsizing, aerospace contracts with the Department of Defense remain crucial for manufacturers in the greater Valley region. On the Business Journal’s directory of the 40 largest manufacturing companies, the top five names are defense contractors, and more than half the companies on the list supply parts or components for aerospace. Northrop Grumman Corp., the top company on the Business Journal’s list, made headlines last year by winning a $60 billion contract for the Air Force’s Long Range Strike Bomber. Although speculation ran wild that the contract would bring work and money to Northrop’s facility at the U.S. Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, the company couldn’t confirm that. The bomber “is a classified program and many details about the contract are not public, including the locations where Northrop Grumman is performing work,” a company spokesperson said in an email to the Business Journal. Even without the bomber, Northrop has plenty of work in Palmdale. It is home to the F-35 Integrated Assembly Line, which produces the fuselage for the fighter jet and is the first assembly line in the aerospace industry designed, built and deployed as an integrated entity. It won the Assembly Plant of the Year award from Assembly Magazine in 2013 as the most advanced production facility in any industry. Northrop has a separate division in Woodland Hills that produces navigation systems. “Northrop Grumman continues to grow in the state of California and we are recruiting and hire top-talent across a number of career fields,” the spokesperson said. Little investment Overall, California ranks dead last among the 50 states for per capita investment in manufacturing, according to a May study by the California Manufacturers & Technology Association in Sacramento. The Golden State had one investment in a new or upgraded manufacturing facility for every 1 million residents in 2015. The U.S. national average was 9.4 investments per million residents. States with the biggest manufacturing investments were clustered in the Midwest and South, the study found. That’s reflected in the strategy of some of the largest Valley manufacturers. For example, Anthony Inc., a maker of refrigeration display doors for supermarkets and restaurants, opened a new plant last year in Conyers, Ga. The Sylmar company ranks No. 8 on the Business Journal’s list. “We’re expanding our production footprint, positioning ourselves closer to customers on the East Coast,” said Uri Rainisch, senior marketing manager at Anthony. The company also has plants in Madison, Ga. and Shanghai, in addition to the Sylmar plant. Other companies on the list are investing in other states. OPI Inc., the nail polish maker, plans to vacate its 11-acre plant in Van Nuys and move the operation to North Carolina. (See story on page 1.) Also, Regent Aerospace Corp. in Valencia, the No. 20 company on the list, opened a 230,000-square-foot facility at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport last year to refurbish the interiors of airliners. And Crane Aerospace, No. 10 on the list, announced last year a 12,000-square-foot facility in Lynnwood, Wash., to test jet fuel monitors. Environmental impact At Anthony, glass freezer doors are nothing new for grocers, but advances in material and design have enabled energy savings for clients, Rainisch explained. For instance, older doors actually heat the glass to prevent condensation that obscures customers from seeing the merchandise. Anthony’s new doors use another technology to address condensation, and can save retailers as much as $230 annually per door. “That’s huge for a retailer’s bottom line,” he said, citing a government study that found energy was the supermarket industry’s second-biggest cost after labor, with the bulk of the cost in refrigeration.