Cascade Furniture Manufacturing has moved to Spokane Valley from Hayden, Idaho, bringing 15 jobs with it, says Henry Sanchez, the companys president and owner.


The company, which makes furniture for hotels, schools, and other institutional settings, has ramped up its business recently and needed to be in a more recognizable location, Sanchez says.


Hayden has had a black cloud a little bit due to white supremacists there who have made national news headlines in the past, he says, adding People know Spokane.


Cascade Furniture moved last month into about 17,000 square feet of leased space in the former Bayliner Marine Corp. boat-making plant, at 18001 E. Euclid, in Spokane Valley. That plant has been converted into a small industrial park by Paul Bielec, a commercial real estate agent in Coeur dAlene, who bought the Bayliner complex late last year.


Previously, Cascade Furniture was located in almost 9,000 square feet of leased space at 13440 Bentz Road, in Hayden, Sanchez says. He bought the company in 2001.


Although some companies recently have moved or threatened to move to Idaho from the Spokane area, saying Idahos lower minimum wage and more business-friendly environment are attractive, Cascade Furniture workers make an average of about $8 an hour, so minimum wage wasnt a consideration in this case, Sanchez says. He adds that the companys workers compensation insurance premiums will increase by about 20 percent in Washington compared with Idaho, but on balance, being in Spokane Valley just will give me better exposure.


Cascades business has increased rapidly in the last year, and the company expects to post revenues of $1.5 million this year, compared with just under $700,000 in 2003, Sanchez says.


The expansion could result in the company hiring another 10 to 15 people, he says.


Sanchez says Cascades recent success has come about because the company happened to be in the right place at the right time.


Early last year, Cascade was limping along due to the soft economy, basically going out of business, he says. Then, last fall, he was approached by a sales representative who had worked for a much larger competitor, Caseworks Furniture Manufacturing Inc., of Tucson, Ariz. Caseworks was discontinuing its furniture-making operations, and the sales representative wanted to know if Cascade could reproduce some of Caseworks designs so that she could continue serving the latter companys former accounts, Sanchez says.


Cascades products satisfied the sales representative, he says. Now, Caseworks refers its former customers to Cascade Furniture in return for Cascade fulfilling the Arizona companys warranty agreements.


In November, Cascade bought about $80,000 worth of manufacturing equipment from Caseworks, which will allow Cascades plant here to produce better-quality furniture more quickly, Sanchez says.


He says he plans to negotiate with Caseworks to buy engineering software from that company, as well.


Before Cascade Furniture began building Caseworks designs, it built products under contract to a wholesaler, and received a low price for them, Sanchez says. Now, Cascade makes products that are sold through sales representatives to customers, allowing Cascade to make a higher profit on each sale, he says.