Spire Corporation Expands Solar Capital Equipment Manufacturing Space
Adds 53,000 Square Feet to Meet Global Demand for Turnkey Solar Factories; Annual Capacity for Equipment Now Exceeds 500 MW
Bedford, MA, Dec. 6, 2007
Source: Spire Corp./Businesswire Press releaes
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=76421&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1084891
Spire Corporation (Nasdaq: SPIR), a global solar company providing turnkey solar factories and capital equipment to manufacture photovoltaic modules worldwide, today announced it has expanded into an additional 53,000 square feet of solar equipment manufacturing space at its Bedford, Massachusetts headquarters facility. The company now maintains a total of approximately 144,000 square feet of manufacturing and headquarters space at this location.
“Spire’s solar capital equipment business is benefiting from the confluence of two powerful market forces,” said Roger G. Little, Spire’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Global demand for solar power is accelerating, and manufacturers of photovoltaic wafers, cells and modules anticipate greater availability of solar-grade silicon – the industry’s primary raw material – within the next year. They want to have new factory capacity in place to take advantage of these market forces, which is creating unprecedented new requirements for solar capital equipment. Spire is committed to helping meet this growing demand.”
Spire Corporation has reported three consecutive quarters of revenue growth. For the third quarter of 2007, the company achieved triple-digit increases year-over-year in sales of its turnkey solar factories and solar capital equipment.
“The increased manufacturing space and capacity is necessary to respond effectively to our customers’ demand for new equipment and facilities,” said Rodger W. LaFavre, chief operating officer of Spire Corporation. “We are fortunate to be able to expand within our present facility to minimize disruptions and to scale up efficiently. We have signed a long-term lease at a competitive rate to secure this space and we have room to expand further within the same facility.”
Along with increasing its manufacturing capacity, Spire has nearly doubled its staff to more than 205 in its Bedford facility, including contract assembly workers. “Our growth has also included major investments in human capital,” continued LaFavre. “We have increased the number of employees in our engineering, manufacturing and purchasing functions, established a second shift for manufacturing, and substantially added to our post-sale service staff and capabilities. We expect that the combination of new space and staff will give us an annual manufacturing capacity for equipment of more than 500 MW.” In addition to its headquarters facility in Bedford, Massachusetts, Spire maintains a state-of-the-art semiconductor foundry at its Bandwidth Semiconductor subsidiary’s facility in Hudson, New Hampshire.