Fabcon to Build Complex for Itself in Santa Ana Zone

It’s pedal to the metal at Fabrications Concepts Corp., which seems to have found its niche--making metal products for others--and is speeding along at breakneck pace.

The Irvine-based sheet metal fabrication company nearly doubled its physical plant just last year and has now inked a deal to build a headquarters and factory complex in Santa Ana that will quadruple its size.

The new facility, to be built on 12.2 acres in the PacifiCenter manufacturing and warehousing center, will give Fabcon--the company’s operating name--207,000 square feet of space, lots of room to expand its robotic welding and metal assembly departments, says general manager Jim Metzler.

Fabcon also will be adding new capabilities including laser cutting and tube bending.

The company will be moving out of 52,000 square feet of space it is crammed into in Irvine.

“We’ve been turning down new business and bumping our heads on each other for two years,” Metzler said. “We will fill up 100,000 square feet right away.”

Fabcon now has 195 employees and does about $16 million a year in sales. “I expect to be doing $50 million a year with 400 employees in four or five years,” Metzler said.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for late next month, he said, with move-in slated for November.

“There’s really a need for contract manufacturing businesses like ours,” Metzler said. “There are a lot of companies out there doing electronics, but we lean toward large pieces with a lot of sheet metal content, like medical equipment cabinetry and exercise treadmills.”

He said that the expense of buying a large industrial building in Irvine, combined with the tax breaks offered by Santa Ana for moving into its enterprise zone, made the relocation worthwhile.