Premier Manufacturing Inc., of Liberty Lake, mostly a precision sheet-metal fabricator, is changing ownership and moving to a new Liberty Lake location, both effective Jan. 31.


Kevin Collins, who owns Premier with his wife, Keri, and father-in-law, Chuck Lormis, says that Garret Guinn, of Liberty Lake, is buying the companys assets, including its name, and is moving the business into the 47,700-square-foot former Itronix building, at 1711 N. Madson.


Collins says the transaction includes Premiers smaller powder-coating business in addition to the sheet-metal operation.


Guinn declines to disclose revenue figures for the business enterprise, but Collins says the revenue grew about 15 percent last year.


Premier, which employs 75 workers, currently is operating in the 35,000-square-foot former Ice World building that Collins and his partners own at 21510 E. Mission, in Liberty Lake, and also uses about 20,000 square feet of leased floor space in a 60,000-square-foot building at 225 N. Ella, in Spokane Valley.


Most of Premiers employees work in the former Ice World building, where the company does its sheet-metal fabricating, says Collins. Fewer than 10 of Premiers employees do powder-coating work at the site on Ella, he says.


Having the business split up has been hard to manage and is a lot more expensive, says Collins. Premier, wanting more usable space, moved much of its operations from Ella to the Ice World location about two years ago.


Collins, who will remain employed by the company as a sales representative, says he, his wife, and his father-in-law bought the Itronix building in November from an East Coast holding company for $2.5 million, and will lease it to Premier. They are negotiating to sell the old Ice World building, where earlier theyd renovated an ice rink into a manufacturing facility.


About 90 percent of Premiers revenue comes from sheet-metal fabrication and about 10 percent from its powder-coating operations, Collins says.


About 75 percent of our business is with local buyers now, but we plan to grow our customer base outside the Spokane area, says Collins.


Collins and partners launched Premier Manufacturing here in 2001, and in 2005 that business absorbed I-90 Express Finishing Inc., a powder-coating concern Collins launched here in 1993. In 2004, he sold an older I-90 Express operation located in Redmond, Wash.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.