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06/09 - Production of Underwater Sonar Device to Bring New Jobs to Utah

Source: The Enterprise

Coda Octopus Colmek, a Salt Lake City provider of engineering services, rugged products and system integration for military/defense, aerospace, mining/oil and gas exploration and other targeted harsh-environment industrial customers around the world, has doubled the size of its local facilities.

The firm has an option to increase in size by another 50 percent and is preparing to take on production of its parent company's flagship product, now being manufactured in Norway.

Congressman Jim Matheson was on hand last Friday to cut the ribbon at the company's new, approximately 10,000 square foot location at 1775 S. 4130 W. The firm was formerly located at 2001 S. 3480 W., said Daniel Bertram, president and CEO of Coda Octopus Colmek. The company was formed two years ago when Coda Octopus Group Inc., a New York City-based provider of port security technology, acquired Salt Lake City-based Colmek Systems Engineering, formed in 1977, for a little more than $2 million.

Bertram said cooperation with Utah's congressional delegation and key partners such as Raytheon Co. "provided us with a solid platform for growth. This cooperation, coupled with the accessibility of outstanding engineering talent from Utah's colleges as well as other professional personnel, makes Salt Lake City an ideal place for us to expand."

Production of Coda Octopus Group's flagship product, the Echoscope, should be transferred from Bergen, Norway, to Salt Lake City this summer, Bertram said. A highly sophisticated, stateof-the-art real-time 3D underwater sonar device, the Echoscope is used extensively by the U.S. Department of Defense to perform such tasks as locating mines, identifying underwater hazards and pinpointing "unfriendlies," Bertram said.

"We're looking to move production for a couple of reasons, probably most notably that the more significant customers for this product are the U.S. Department of Defense, but also because of the Buy America Act and the ultimate desire to manufacture in the United States," Bertram said. The Buy America Act, passed by Congress in 1933, requires the U.S. government to prefer U.S.- made products in its purchases.

Movement of the Echoscope production from Europe to Utah will create more Salt Lake City jobs, he said, but it is uncertain how many - "certainly a handful and potentially many." Currently, Coda Octopus Colmek employs roughly 25 people.

Coda Octopus Colmek "will probably grow by 50 percent this year and we're looking to grow by 100 percent next year," Bertram said. "Ultimately, within a handful of years, we'll be in the $100 million range. Those are our internal growth plans. While at this point we're not among the big Salt Lake City companies, our plans are to be mentioned in those sorts of circles in the not too distant future."