SeaMed Corp., a big Redmond-based contract manufacturer of medical devices that disclosed last summer it was considering Spokane for a new plant, now says such a plant could employ as many as 300 people.


W. Robert Berg, SeaMeds president and CEO, says the company hasnt set definite expansion plans yet, but says that it could open a manufacturing facility here within the next three years.


Our next expansion very likely will be in Spokane, Berg says.


He estimates that the company would need about 60,000 square feet of space for such a plant, and that the facility would manufacture medical devices for major medical companies. He declines to disclose where in Spokane the company has been scouting for a possible location for a plant.


Berg says SeaMed would employ about 300 people in a plant with 60,000 square feet of space, and that most of the workers would be hired locally. The company currently employs 520 workers at two sites in the Seattle area, up from about 400 15 months ago. He says that more than 140 of the companys current workers are engineers from a wide range of disciplines.


Berg says that the publicly traded company is interested in the Spokane area because of the lower property costs here compared with those in the Puget Sound area and because of the colleges and universities here from which the company could draw workers.


SeaMeds growth strategy calls for continued expansion, he says. The company recently added 41,000 square feet of manufacturing space, which gives it a total of 193,000 square feet of space at the facilities it operates in Redmond and Bothell, Wash.


The products that SeaMed produces include cell-production systems, consoles for breast cancer detection, stem-cell separators, and blood-gas monitors. Its customers include such major players as Johnson & Johnson and the Health Imaging division of Eastman Kodak. SeaMed also makes coin-counting machines for Coinstar Inc., of Bellevue, Wash.


SeaMed reported net income of $1.1 million, or 20 cents a share, for the first quarter of its 1999 fiscal year, ended Sept. 30, compared with $906,846, or 16 cents a share, for the year-earlier quarter. The company posted revenue of $19.4 million during its most recent quarter, up 21 percent from $16 million in the year-earlier quarter.


SeaMed reported net income of $4.1 million, or 73 cents a share, for fiscal 1998, ended July 30, compared with $2.7 million, or 55 cents a share, for fiscal 1997.


SeaMed attributes its growth to expansion in the market for advanced medical technology, growing demand for manufacturing test equipment, a national shortage of skilled engineers, and the trend among medical manufacturers toward outsourcing work to companies such as SeaMed. The company contends that because of its broad engineering, manufacturing, and regulatory expertise, it can develop and manufacture products more quickly and at lower cost than its customers. Also, by using SeaMed to handle manufacturing, its customers can focus on product research, clinical development, and sales and marketing, the company says.


SeaMed originally was incorporated in the late 1970s for a different purpose, but was re-chartered in 1988 to design and make products for other companies, Berg says.