PORT ANGELES — A trip to a European trade show has resulted in inquiries that could pay off in hundreds of thousands of dollars of composites investments and contracts coming to the North Olympic Peninsula in the next three to six months, Port of Port Angeles staff said.
Port of Port Angeles Marketing and Property Manager Colleen McAleer traveled to Paris for the JEC Europe Composites Show two weeks ago.
The results have been encouraging, she told the Port of Port Angeles commissioners last week.
Early results from the contacts they made at the trade show — which drew some 30,000 visitors — exceeded expectations, said Jeff Robb, port executive director.
“We were able to shine a bright light on our community,” Robb said.
Since the show, several companies have identified new customers or partnerships from contacts made at the trade show, McAleer said. Interest in port facilities included a Moscow-based carbon fiber company that is seeking a U.S. West Coast location, she said.
New verbal contracts were agreed to, and the process in some cases has gone to lawyers to finish deals, Robb said.
The names of the businesses cannot yet be revealed, he said.
“It’s sensitive, working with a potential customer,” he said.
“Talking about specific names prematurely could have negative consequences.
When planning the trip, the port expected to see results from the visit to the major European trade show to begin trickling into the region in the next two or three years.
“We didn’t expect to get results this fast,” Robb said.
At the show, McAleer marketed the port’s composites manufacturing campus at the port’s Airport Industrial Park at the William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles as part of a broader plan to establish an Olympics Composite Corridor on the Olympic Peninsula.
The port’s composites manufacturing campus has one completed 25,000 square-foot building leased to ACTI, a second building under construction and a third building pad site available.
The Peninsula delegation — which included Angeles Composite Technologies, Inc. of Port Angeles and Sequim Marine Sciences Lab of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, also known as Battelle — highlighted the concept of this corridor — an area that includes Bremerton, Kitsap County, Clallam County “and to some degree Jefferson County,” McAleer said.
Other companies represented in the delegation were Profile Composites of Bremerton, ElectroImpact of Mukilteo, General Plastics of Tacoma, Globe Machine Manufacturing Company of Tacoma, Innovative Composite Engineering of White Salmon, Warm Industrial Nonwovens of Lynnwood and Pro CNC of Bellingham.
Other partners in the Olympic Composites Corridor include Westport Shipyards, Platypus Marine, Peninsula College — which provides training for the composites industry — the Port of Bremerton, Olympic College, Kitsap Aerospace & Defense Alliance, the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, Mervin Manufacturing, the Clallam County Economic Development Council and the Kitsap Economic Development Authority.
The relationship between the coalition members is informal and relaxed, but flexible, with an ability to branch out, McAleer said.
“We’re communicating every day with our partners,” she said.
The representatives to the Paris show shared a $7,000 booth funded half by the state Department of Commerce, McAleer said.
The port paid $1,500 and the cities of Port Angeles and Sequim each contributed $1,000, she said.
The trip cost the port $6,000 for airfare, lodging, the cost of a booth and promotional materials.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345 ext. 5070 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
