California firms hang out shingles in Douglas County, Carson City

Five new companies, plus an expansion at the Starbucks roasting plant in Douglas County, will directly and indirectly add about 300 jobs and infuse about $42 million into the local economy over the next two years, according to Northern Nevada Development Authority, which introduced the newcomers at a breakfast it hosted recently in Carson City.

Several of the companies are relocating to Nevada from California, where the firms say taxes, regulations and other issues make life difficult to conduct business.

"I was done with California," says Greg Havemann, president, AnC Machining Inc., a 30-year-old parts maker and service supplier for aerospace and other industries. In May 2012, AnC moved with eight employees from Palmdale, Calif., to Gardnerville. The company has since hired two more people here.

"In taxes and regulations, Nevada is so much more business friendly," says Havemann. "It's been a pleasure to work with NNDA and the commissioners. Everyone has been phenomenal."

D.P. Industries Inc., a manufacturer of hangar doors for the U.S. Air Force, U. S. Department of Defense and others, is in the process of moving its operations from Templeton, located on the California coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to David Paine, vice president. The company purchased a 38,500-square-foot facility on 4.7 acres in Mound House last October and by March, all 16 employees will relocate here and the company will be looking to hire another four workers, specifically welders, says Paine.

The impetus for the move, he says, was California taxes and state smog restrictions on off-road equipment instituted a couple years ago.

Allstate Can Corp. is moving its Stockton, Calif., plant to the industrial area near the Carson City airport.

The company has headquarters in Parsippany, N.J., and makes specialty and industrial containers and seamless and decorative tins. It is expected to employ 20 people, according to the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, which worked with NNDA to bring both Allstate Can and D.P. Industries to Nevada.

Aquasyn LLC is expected to bring 17 to 20 jobs to the area. The 17-year-old maker of diaphragm and disposable valves used by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms in clinical research is moving its manufacturing operations to a 6,614 square-foot industrial property it leased in Carson City.

Michael Gagne, owner of Aquasyn, said the company is moving its manufacturing operations from a rural area of northern California because it needs the larger and deeper pool of skilled manufacturing workers that are available in Carson City. Some workers will transfer with the company and the remainder will be hired locally.

NNDA continues to mine California for companies looking for a change. Rob Hooper, NNDA's executive director, said Danny Campos, the group's vice president of business development, was in Los Angeles last week, meeting with 10 southern California companies exploring the possibility of relocating to Nevada.

Tahoe Cheese, also announced at the breakfast, is a partnership between Winter Park Dairy and Turner Dairy LLC in Carson City and is still in the process of formation, says Chad Turner, owner of Turner Dairy. The newly formed venture will produce handmade, artisan cheeses for sale to the local resort industry as well as for exportation, says Turner.

NNDA facilitated the deal by putting Turner in touch with Winter Park Dairy, which now produces artisan cheeses in Winter Park, Fla., but wants to move to a more amenable business environment.

In addition to the new companies, the Starbucks roasting plant expects to add 47 new jobs, bringing total employment at the Minden facility to 312 workers, according to NNDA.