Leader expands PO operations

"A major Port Orchard manufacturing firm is in the process of building a new $2 million production facility and headquarters in the Port Orchard Industrial Park off Old Clifton Road. Leader International Corp., which makes a wide variety of products including retail display equipment, examination tables and outdoor site furnishings, will complete construction on its new facility sometime this fall, said corporation president and CEO Rick Flaherty. We're just plum out of space, he said. When completed, the new building will provide about 41,000 square feet of space for the company to operate in. Currently, Leader International has a total of 19,000 square feet of space, most of that contained in two pre-World War II-era buildings at the old Port Orchard Airport. The new building will also allow the company to consolidate its operations, which now include extend to leased space at Olympic View Industrial Park and an industrial park in Bremerton. Since 1998, Leader International has grown from $2 million in gross sales and 21 employees to $4 million in sales and 43 employees, the majority of whom reside in the Port Orchard area, Flaherty said.Part of that growth was due to the 1999 purchase of Tacoma-based Urban Systems Inc., which marketed products such as steel benches and trash receptacles under the trademark name FairWeather Site Furnishings. Founded in 1981, Leader International has three divisions marketing more than 100 products to 39 countries, Flaherty said. "

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