Bloomfield aeroparts maker Birken Manufacturing Co. plans to build an additional facility near its current Old Windsor Road headquarters and hire up to 15 new employees to keep up with customer demand.
“We need room to expand our current workload,” said Birken General Manager Gary Connolly.
Bloomfield’s Town Planning and Zoning Commission this month approved Birken’s plan to add a new 18,000-square-foot building on its 3 Old Windsor Road lot.
Connolly said he expects the building will cost about $2 million and break ground next spring with a completion date about a year from now. It will be built near its current 70,000-square-foot facility, Connolly said, and likely be connected by a vestibule.
Birken is a 75-year-old company that provides computer numerically controlled-machine and engine component design services and makes bearings, oil nozzles and other jet-engine components for customers that include General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls Royce, Connolly said. Demand for its products has increased the past eight years or so, he said, thanks to the booming aerospace market. Its products are used in GE’s LEAP engine, Pratt’s geared turbofan engine and Rolls’ helicopter engines, Connolly said.
The company has about 135 employees and is looking to hire up to 15 more, with open positions for quality inspectors, engineers and machinists, Connolly said.
Connolly declined to disclose the company’s annual revenues, but in 2016 they were around $32 million, according to a Hartford Business Journal story.
“Business is booming,” Connolly said.
