Clearfield Managed Facility Expands Capacity, Lowers Cost of Manufacturing while Ensuring Rapid Response Time
Minneapolis (October 16, 2014) – Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFD), the specialist in fiber management and connectivity platforms for communications providers, today announced the expansion of its management team, with the hiring of Jim Henschel, director of global manufacturing and the continued enhancement of its manufacturing capacity with the addition of a Clearfield managed facility in Tijuana, Mexico. The new facility maintains Clearfield’s guaranteed fiber performance levels and rapid response time while lowering costs and increasing capacity. Clearfield is currently shipping FieldShield optical fiber assemblies from the facility.
“We are pleased to welcome Jim to Clearfield’s team,” said Johnny Hill, chief operating officer for Clearfield. “Jim brings more than 20 years of fiber termination experience in which he has built manufacturing operations from the ground up to more than $100 million in revenue. Jim will enhance our strong, existing U.S. operations and Global supply chains and will be instrumental in scaling our operations for continued growth in the FTTH marketplace.”
At current staffing levels, 20 percent of North American manufacturing capacity will be based in Mexico with the opportunity to expand both U.S. and Mexican facilities in square footage and labor force.
“Clearfield is dedicated to meeting the lead time and cost targets of our customer groups,” said Cheri Beranek, president and CEO of Clearfield. “In fiscal years 2013 and 2014, we were able to respond to demand from within our current facility. Over the next six months, we anticipate completing our move to our new U.S. manufacturing headquarters while optimizing the product mix at the Mexican facility and overseas supply partners. We believe this will enable us to respond to anticipated FTTH build requirements in the latter half of fiscal 2015.”
About Clearfield, Inc.
Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLFD) designs, manufactures and distributes fiber optic management, protection and delivery products for the communications networks of leading ILECS, CLECs, MSO/cable TV companies and mobile broadband providers. We help service providers solve the Fiber Puzzle, which is how to reduce high costs associated with deploying, managing, protecting and scaling a fiber optic network to deliver the mobile, residential and business services customers want. Based on the patented Clearview™ Cassette, our unique single-architected, modular fiber management platform is designed to lower the cost of broadband deployment and maintenance by consolidating, protecting and distributing incoming and outgoing fiber circuits and enable our customers to scale their operations as their subscriber revenues increase. Headquartered in Plymouth, MN, Clearfield deploys millions of fiber ports each year throughout North America and beyond.