W.L. Gore to Expand in Arizona

W. L. Gore & Associates (Newark, DE), a provider of components and materials to medical device OEMs and a provider of surgical, vascular, and orthopedic devices, is planning to expand in Phoenix. The company hopes to add 150 jobs this year and eventually create up to 800 positions at a new campus for the company's medical-device division.While it hires engineers, production workers, and R&D staff for the new Phoenix operation, the company plans to build out and equip a warehouse building. Meanwhile, it will continue its search for a large piece of land—perhaps 25 acres or more—to build a permanent facility. The manufacturer hopes to establish the new facility on a plot of land with easy access to local airports and near highways that lead to Flagstaff, AZ.Gore has been a fixture in Flagstaff for more than three decades. As its medical-device business, which manufactures stents, catheters, and other devices, has doubled in size over the past five to seven years, most of the job growth has taken place in Flagstaff, where the company employs 1600 people. In addition to plans to build a new 40,000-sq-ft building there, the company says that it will add 100 jobs at a 133,000-sq-ft manufacturing plant in Kendrick Peak, AZ, which will open in April.Gore's Flagstaff operations will remain its largest Arizona base, but its Phoenix campus will provide a relief valve that will enable the company to recruit more engineers, scientists, and other workers and to ship products worldwide.