National Industrial Concepts Inc., which does business as NIC Global Manufacturing Solutions, has expanded its operations to Spokane.

“We shipped our first product (from Spokane) March 1,” says Bridget Brewer, president and CEO of the Woodinville, Washington-based sheet metal manufacturing company.

Established in 1998, NIC Global now occupies about 54,000 square feet of space in a portion of the 386,000-square-foot former Triumph Composite Systems Inc. plant at 1514 S. Flint.

The company employs 12 people at the Spokane facility now, although Brewer says that number is expected to grow to about 100 in the next year or two. The company also plans to double the amount of space it occupies in the Spokane facility at some point, she adds.

NIC Global has about 650 employees companywide, she says. In addition to the Spokane plant and Woodinville headquarters, the company has a Pullman, Washington, operation, three facilities located in Tennessee, one in Ohio, one in Texas, and two in China.

The former Triumph plant also is the expected site for the proposed American Aerospace Materials Manufacturing Center, which received the tech hub designation in October from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

NIC Global’s expansion into the proposed aerospace manufacturing building isn't related to the tech hub designation, but Brewer says the company will look at potential collaboration opportunities as other companies move into the facility.

“We absolutely have been talking about that and seeing if there are alignments and opportunities to move into the aerospace sector,” she says.

The company’s current main market segments are heavy-duty trucking, medical equipment, and infrastructure, says Brewer.

NIC Global expanded to Spokane primarily because of the city’s proximity to one of the its customers, Brewer says.

“One of our biggest customers is Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories—they’re headquartered in Pullman—and we do some bigger parts for them,” she says. “Part of world-class manufacturing is localizing manufacturing to your customers.”