April 21, 2004 San Francisco, CA -- Fabrinet, an engineering and electromechanical manufacturing services company, has announced the planned expansion of its operations in Thailand with the investment of $25 million in additional manufacturing facilities, equipment, and training. A portion of the funds was used in the acquisition of Fabrinet's new 115,000-square-foot factory outside of Bangkok, completed in early April. Additional funds will be used to facilitate the new factory, which will be available to customers in June 2004. In addition, construction will begin later this year to expand the new factory space into a 340,000-square-foot campus, increasing the company's aggregate footprint to approximately 575,000 square feet.
The new factories will include complete automated assembly lines for the manufacture of optoelectronic components from fiber alignment through assembly and will include a range of test capabilities. The factories will support a range of services, including design for manufacture, prototyping, product transfer and qualification, process development and optimization, test development, assembly, and fulfillment.
As part of its investment in Thailand, the company plans to hire and train over 2,500 engineers, operators, and technicians to support customer manufacturing requirements. The company will provide new employees with advanced technical training, lean manufacturing, and six sigma disciplines as required for the manufacture of precision optical and optoelectronic devices for the telecommunications, data-communications, automotive, data storage, industrial, and imaging markets. Presently, Fabrinet operates a 232,000-square-foot facility with over 3,200 employees in Bangkok, Thailand.
"I have been an avid supporter of Thailand as a center for precision manufacturing of complex devices for over twenty years," asserts Tom Mitchell, founder and CEO of Fabrinet. "The infrastructure, highly motivated and educated employees, stable political structure, and economic advantages of operating in Thailand make it the ideal country for Fabrinet's growth and business development," he adds.