A Reading-area manufacturer of electronic components has outgrown its space and is poised to grow even more once it moves into its new headquarters.
RLC Electronic Systems, which is now based in the town of Womelsdorf, Berks County, is contracted by other manufacturers to design and make advanced electronics for their products. It works for customers in a variety of industries, including gaming, medicine and defense. In January it purchased ECI Cables, a Reading firm that makes advanced cables for a similar collection of customers. RLC's controller, Bob Koch, says the arrangement made perfect sense because the two companies provided complementary services but didn’t compete with each other.
The partnership will be complete come April, when RLC and ECI expect to move into shared headquarters near Sinking Spring, a town between where the two companies are based now. A $1.7 million loan from the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority will help cover the estimated $3.2 million price tag to construct the new building.
The two companies now have 29 workers between them, Koch says. He expects another 20 to be hired over the next three years because RLC is seeing a wide increase in demand. “We have a pretty broad base of customers,” he says. “Growth, for us, has been word of mouth.”
Source: Bob Koch, RLC Electronic Systems
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
