Woodinville, Wash.-based sheet metal manufacturer NIC Global Manufacturing Solutions has opened a new warehouse facility in Pullman, which it says will enable it to better supply long-time client Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc.

“Our sales with Schweitzer have seen year-on-year double-digit growth for the last 12 years,” says NIC Global president Bridget Brewer. “Schweitzer is growing, too, and we felt this move would bring us into greater alignment with their manufacturing needs.”

Established in 1998, NIC Global is a privately owned provider of sheet metal custom parts, components, and assemblies. The company has served as a supplier for SEL since 2005. 

Brewer says NIC Global’s new Pullman facility is a 6,000-square-foot leased space within an existing building, located at 101 Estes Road, about six miles northeast of the SEL campus.

“We officially opened the last day of October,” she says. 

Although NIC Global currently has only three employees at the new Pullman facility, Brewer says the company intends to expand the location in the coming years. 

“Over the next few years, we hope to add to our sheet metal capabilities at the Pullman facility, as well as increase the number of staff there,” she says.

She says NIC Global serves about 15 major clients in the medical, industrial, heavy truck, and commercial products industries. 

“Companywide, our revenues reached just over $100 million this year,” she says. “Next year, we’re anticipating revenues in the $110 million range.” 

SEL is a Pullman-based company, which invents, designs, and builds digital products and systems that protect power grids. 

The company has about 70 employees based here in Spokane, in addition to 5,000 employees in its manufacturing facilities and field offices worldwide.

Diane Donnermeyer, Pullman-based purchasing manager for SEL, says co-location arrangements like the one SEL now has with NIC Global are crucial to maintaining growth.

“Anytime a supplier is willing to bring part or all of their manufacturing services closer, that helps to reduce lead time and enables us to better serve our customers,” she says. 

Donnermeyer says NIC Global’s the new Pullman facility marks the first time SEL has made this kind of arrangement with a supplier.

“SEL has some suppliers who are located nearby, but this is the first time a company has been interested in creating a co-location solely to support us,” she says. “If more of our suppliers express interest, we’d certainly be open to those opportunities.”