Woodward launches $50M expansion plan

By Alex Gary

BusinessRockford.com

Woodward Governor Co. officials today announced a $50 million expansion and renovation of the company’s landmark Loves Park plant on North Second Street.

Ringland-Johnson Construction of Cherry Valley has broken ground on a new 10,000-square-foot cafeteria and meeting center, and in July construction of a 45,000-square-foot systems and testing facility will begin.

The added space will allow the company to convert the current cafeteria into an additional 20,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 8,000 square feet of office space as well as renovate all of its manufacturing areas.

“In today’s global market you must be able to differentiate yourself, and the linchpin of this investment is a new (systems test facility),” Woodward CEO Tom Gendron, a Rockford Guilford graduate, said in a news release. “In addition, the growth of our aircraft business requires us to add space and upgrade our facilities and equipment.”

Woodward was founded in Rockford in 1870 to make a device that controlled the rotating speed of a water wheel by changing the flow of water. The company, which now has three divisions — electrical power systems, engine systems and turbine systems — recorded more than $1 billion in annual sales for the first time in 2007.

Woodward, which shifted its headquarters to Fort Collins, Colo., has for decades been one of the area’s largest employers and now has about 1,450 employees at its locations in Rockton and Loves Park. With the new construction, the company will maintain a heavy investment in its turbine systems division. Woodward is the global leader in producing engine fuel systems for both commercial and military aircraft

In fact, the company has added nearly 400 local workers since 2003, as it recovered from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that sent the airline industry into a severe downturn.

“We were expecting a longer downturn after 9/11,” Gendron said after Wednesday’s news conference. “We were pretty nervous. During this time period, we’ve secured a number of new projects and those programs are going into production. The aircraft industry is adding capacity, maybe not so much in the U.S., but when you look at China, India, the Middle East, parts of Europe — they are adding new aircraft.”

The North Second Street plant opened in 1941, six years before Loves Park was even a city, and has been added on to and remodeled several times. The renovation also is meant to modernize the entire manufacturing facility.

Loves Park Mayor Darryl Lindberg said he took a tour of the building a couple of years ago and was going through the many interior twists and turns.

“I said to Tom (Gendron), ‘Geez, it’s really a maze in here’ and Tom said, ‘Well, we’re looking at that.’”

Assistant Business Editor Alex Gary may be reached at agary@rrstar.com or at 815-987-1339. Reporter Thomas Bona contributed to this report.

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Aerospace investments
Woodward Governor’s $50 million expansion and renovation of its Loves Park facility is just the latest local aerospace investment.

Acument Global Technologies in March launched an aerospace fastener division in Rockford to make high-end titanium nuts and bolts to hold airplanes together.

Hamilton Sundstrand in Rockford — which makes power systems and other components for commercial airplanes, the military and NASA — announced in January it would hire 150 engineers this year. In February, it was awarded a contract for Airbus’ newest aircraft model.

Ingenium, a Rockford-based engineering service company that primarily serves the aerospace industry, was started in 2000 by four former Hamilton Sundstrand engineers and now has 200 employees.

Emery Air, an aircraft maintenance facility at Chicago Rockford International Airport, added a handful of employees last year after winning a contract with an Indian airline.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, now offers degree programs in Rockford. Chicago Rockford International Airport hopes to become a center for aircraft testing, design and maintenance.

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