Herald Business Journal A7
|
THE DAILY HERALD
|
WWW.HERALDNET.COM
|
THURSDAY, 10.29.2015
Cobalt moves to Lake Stevens Most of the firm’s work is for aerospace manufacturers. By Jim Davis The Herald Business Journal Editor
LAKE STEVENS — Cobalt Enterprises is buying a 25,000-square-foot building in Lake Stevens and moving most of its operations from Granite Falls to the new site. The machine shop will also expand, increasing its workforce from 98 employees to 120, said Paul Clark, Cobalt’s vice president and one of its owners. Cobalt has seen heavy growth for years. The company has experienced on average a 34-percent increase in sales for 11 straight
years and expects to see that number go up to 44 percent this year. Most of the work is for aerospace manufacturers. “We’ll tackle heart-attack-type jobs,” Clark said. “The company has built its reputation on those types of jobs.” The company expects to spend $3 million with the purchase of the building at 3316 Old Hartford Road, Lake Stevens, along with renovations and moving costs. The company expects to move its assembly and paint departments by the end of this year and move the machining department by next year. In all, 110 workers will be located at the Lake Stevens site. “We are very excited for a variety of reasons,” said Jeanie Ashe,
Lake Stevens’ development c o o r d i n a t o r. “This is bringing to our community ultimately 110 jobs — those Cobalt are employees Enterprises Vice who will spend President Paul money in our Clark community.” She also praised Cobalt as a good corporate citizen. The company, founded by Fred Schule in 2004, was awarded Washington’s Small Business of the Year in 2014 by the U.S. Small Business Administration. “Cobalt ... is a very wellrespected manufacturer and we’re hoping that we can attract parts of their supply chain or
other manufacturers to community,” Ashe said. Cobalt owns two buildings in Granite Falls at 10917 Mountain Loop Highway and plans to continue to keep about 10 to 15 workers at the site, Clark said. The company has a retail motorcycle shop that it plans to move to the Granite Falls location and will continue to operate a hydraulics departments there. The company is looking for other uses for the property. He said the new Lake Stevens building was an “amazing building — very, very close to exactly what we need.” “For us, it’s not a lot of hoopla,” Clark said. “Manufacturing at this level is very direct. After the move, we’ll just want to get back to work.”
BRIEFLY
Fed keeps lid on short-term interest rates The Federal Reserve is keeping its key short-term interest rate at a record low in the face of threats from a weak global economy and excessively low inflation. But it suggested the possibility of a rate increase in December. A statement the Fed issued Wednesday said it would seek to determine “whether it will be appropriate to raise the target range at its next meeting” by monitoring the progress on employment and inflation. It marked the first time in seven years of record-low rates that the central bank has raised the possibility that it could raise its benchmark rate at its next meeting.
Profits top record, AutoNation reports
Allegiant Airlines MD-80s sit on the ramp at Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida.
Airline finds Boeing MD-80 woes Bloomberg News
biz bits
WASHINGTON — When two Allegiant Airlines pilots couldn’t control their plane and scrubbed a takeoff from Las Vegas in August, the carrier discovered that a critical piece of equipment in the tail had come loose. Allegiant ordered inspections of its other Boeing MD-80s to ensure that all similar connections were secured. Eight days later, Allegiant said in response to questions from Bloomberg that all its aircraft “were found to be in working order.” By that time, mechanics had already come across two other jets with bolts in similar locations that weren’t properly locked in place, according to company repair logs obtained by Bloomberg. Later that month, they found another unsecured bolt on a third plane. While Allegiant said the fasteners weren’t on the same component that failed in Las Vegas, the Federal Aviation Administration said it is aware of the findings and has stepped up oversight of the airline. “The FAA intensified its focus on the carrier’s flight operations and aircraft maintenance programs,” the agency said Oct. 15, without elaborating. The aborted Aug. 17 takeoff occurred after a device that moves one of the jet’s two elevators — panels on the tail used to climb and descend — was disconnected, according to Allegiant. The maintenance logs from the follow-up checks show that two planes each were found to have an unsecured elevator bolt, while the third jet had an unsecured bolt on another key part — an aileron, which is on the wing and is used in turns.
Anything less than perfect work on this system can have catastrophic results. — John Goglia, former NTSB member
Because the findings on the three other planes didn’t specifically involve the so-called elevator boost actuator at issue in Las Vegas, they weren’t considered part of the inspection results, Allegiant spokeswoman Kimberly Schaefer said last week in response to questions from Bloomberg about the maintenance logs. “During the fleet-wide inspection of the elevator boost actuators, Allegiant mechanics made additional repairs to other aircraft, as they do each and every day,” Schaefer said. “As these repairs were outside the scope of the fleet campaign in question, they were logged per normal procedure.” FAA rules require the reporting of all maintenance actions — including fixing mistakes such as poorly attached bolts — but they don’t have to be disclosed immediately. Those actions are entered into a database shared quarterly with the agency. John Goglia, a former member of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, said the multiple instances of unsecured bolts and their locations on the aircraft were so serious they “should result in a focused FAA audit.” “This is not a coffee maker that we’re talking about here,” Goglia said. “This is a primary flight
Creative Marketing For Small Businesses is a six-part presentation in the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce Lunch & Learn Series. It covers all of the major elements of marketing and promoting a small business. The first class takes place at noon Friday. Limited spaces are available. RSVP for a guaranteed
control on the airplane. Anything less than perfect work on this system can have catastrophic results.” Allegiant, a unit of Allegiant Travel Co., specializes in flights to vacation destinations centered on Las Vegas and Orlando, Florida. Flight 436 on Aug. 17 was supposed to fly to Peoria, Illinois, from Las Vegas, carrying 158 passengers and six crew members. As the MD-80 rumbled down a Las Vegas runway, the front of the plane began to rise off the ground prematurely, defying the pilots’ attempts to keep the nose down, according to an FAA report. They abruptly halted the takeoff roll at 138 miles per hour, the report said. Allegiant’s inspections of its MD-80s found two other planes with elevator bolts that weren’t properly connected, maintenance records show. On Aug. 27, a mechanic working on another MD-80 found an unsecured bolt on an aileron, a maintenance log shows. Those assemblies are considered so crucial that mechanics are supposed to insert pins to ensure the nuts used to fasten the bolts can’t come undone. “Any failure to properly secure any part of a flight control is a major problem,” said Goglia, the ex-NTSB member who is also a former aircraft mechanic. “More
spot or find out more at http:// tinyurl.com/pbzvljc. The first Holiday on the Bay Decorated Wreath Fundraiser at the Port of Everett is in support of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation. Local businesses and community partners are invited to drop off decorated wreaths at the Port’s
administration office by Nov. 23. Wreaths will be sold at a silent auction Dec. 5. For more details, go to the Port’s Facebook page at facebook.com/ PortofEverett. Coastal Community Bank, the city of Monroe, Monroe’s Chamber of Commerce and the Monroe Library will host
than one occurrence clearly indicates a maintenance organization that is not functioning properly.” Allegiant responded: “While we respect the credentials of Mr. Goglia, he does not have any specific knowledge about our company or the details of our operation.” AAR Corp.’s AAR Aircraft Services does large-scale maintenance on Allegiant’s MD-80s in Oklahoma City. Mechanics from Allegiant and AAR work on the areas of the aircraft where the wrongly secured bolts were found, Schaefer said. “Since hearing of the August 17 incident, AAR has been working with Allegiant and the FAA to investigate,” AAR spokeswoman Kathleen Cantillon said. “AAR has a 60-year history and culture of safety and compliance.” Work on flight control systems is considered critical because errors can lead to accidents, Goglia said. The NTSB concluded that an improperly installed elevator bolt caused an Emery Worldwide Inc. cargo jet in California to lose control and slam into the ground in California in 2000, killing all three people on board. The FAA said its intensified focus on Allegiant was also prompted by a July incident in Fargo, North Dakota, in which a pilot reported a low-fuel emergency. Allegiant said it’s working with the FAA in examining that episode. Earlier this year, the FAA put Allegiant under heightened surveillance as pilots neared a potential strike, a step the agency sometimes takes during possible labor actions or when a carrier is struggling financially. Allegiant won a court order in April blocking the walkout, and in May said the FAA had ended additional scrutiny.
the first Monroe Business Symposium from 4 to 6 p.m. Nov. 5 at the East County Senior Center at 276 Sky River Parkway, Monroe. To reserve a spot or for details, contact Katy Woods at 360-805-5484 or kwoods@coastalbank.com. Biz Bits runs Monday through Saturday.
AutoNation on Wednesday reported record quarterly profits and its biggest purchase in 15 years. The country’s largest auto dealer chain said profits from continuing operations reached an all-time high of $119 million, up 12 percent from last year’s third quarter. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida, company also announced plans to buy 12 stores in Texas that have annual revenues of roughly $800 million. The stores in the Allen Samuels Group of Waco sold about 19,500 new and used vehicles on a retail level last year. Those outlets in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Tyler, Ennis and Waco now employ about 1,000 people and mainly sell Chrysler-related brands.
Salt worry sparks SUV recall by Ford Ford is recalling 129,000 midsize SUVs in parts of the U.S. and Canada to fix potential fuel leaks. The company said the recall covers the 2009 and 2010 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX. In places where salt is used to clear the roads of snow, the fuel tanks can rust under the reinforcement brackets that hold them to the SUVs. This can cause a fuel leak or activate the check engine light. A leak could cause a fire. Ford said it doesn’t know of any fires caused by the problem. Dealers will inspect the fuel tanks and repair or replace them at no cost to customers.
Warmer summer benefits Heineken Dutch brewer Heineken said warm summer weather in Europe helped increase beer sales in the third quarter, while tough market conditions led to a drop in sales volume in Russia. Heineken said Wednesday that revenue rose 7.5 percent organically — stripping out the effects of currency fluctuations and acquisitions — to 5.5 billion euros ($6.08 billion) in the three months to October. The company recorded a net profit for the first nine months of the year of 1.8 billion euros ($2 billion), including an extraordinary post-tax gain of 375 million euros on the sale of its Mexican packaging unit Empaque, up from 1.1 billion euros in the same period last year. From Herald news services
Amazon . . . . . 617.10 6.09 Boeing . . . . . . 147.89 -0.57 Costco . . . . . . . 157.76 0.00 Crane . . . . . . . . 52.11 -0.46 FrontierCom . . . . 5.28 0.04 HeritageFin . . . 19.00 0.39 HomeStBnk . . . 21.11 -0.02 Microsoft . . . . . 53.98 0.29 Nordstrom . . . . 64.66 0.08 Paccar . . . . . . . . 53.73 2.53 Starbucks . . . . . 63.51 0.80 T-Mobile . . . . . . 39.31 0.29 WshFederal . . . 25.52 0.71 Zillow . . . . . . . . 28.23 -0.23 Zumiez . . . . . . . 17.22 0.78 Market report, A8