East West Goes North South With Costa Rican Manufacturing Expansion

East West Goes North South With Costa Rican Manufacturing Expansion

Atlanta, Georgia based OEM contract manufacturer East West has announced an investment of more than $2 million USD for expansion of its operations in Costa Rica.

Located in the BES free trade zone in Alajuela, East West says it will be investing in new machinery to automate production lines and to introduce new productive processes in Costa Rica. Currently, the company has more than 180 employees in the Central American country and expects to hire more than 50 more people for diverse areas and company levels during the year 2020.

The operation in Costa Rican expects growth of 25% in sales due to the transfer of projects from the United States to Costa Rica. This measure is being taken at the headquarters given the excellent results obtained in the country with emphasis being placed on the quality of the staff and the end product leaving its plant.

The company’s strategy will be to use economies of scale and to send higher volume projects to Costa Rica to provide optimized production alternatives for its customers.

Above photo: The BES Free Zone in Costa Rica (photo courtesy BES)

Information provided by CINDE shows that, as of the 2019 close, the advanced manufacturing sector employed more than 9,630 people and recorded 44 companies in this strategic sector.

The minister of foreign trade, Dyalá Jiménez, commented: “The announcement made by the East West company fills us with pride and continues to motivate us to work to position ourselves in greater competitive conditions. Today more than ever this is great news because it translates into employment opportunities. We are deeply grateful to East West for its trust in our country and its long-term wager.”

Marco Fernandez, the East West general manager, commented: “The strategic acquisition of General Microcircuits that took place at the beginning of 2019 by East West Manufacturing involved taking advantage of the human resources, quality, talent, and production capacity as its main strategy. It was meant to transfer high-volume projects to our operations in Costa Rica from the different East West branches. This involves investing in plant capacity, automation and staff to underwrite the long-term commitment to the work and investment made in the country up to this point.”

Jorge Sequeira Picado, the CINDE managing director, commented that: “The advanced manufacturing companies have made it possible for the number of jobs created by the sector since 2000 to double, reaching more than 9,600 job positions in 2019. Likewise, the number of active companies in the country has grown 1.5 times over that same period of time. With this new investment, East West Costa Rica was able to increase its manufacturing volume and generate greater value added for its processes by taking advantage of the economies of scale to the benefit of its customers and, in turn, have a positive impact on the development of this human talent.”

The company will seek to recruit staff for areas such as: accounting, purchasing, electromechanical techniques, industrial engineers, logistics, production operators, supervisors, etc.

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