Jim Solis acknowledges that the story of Hedwin Corp. isn't a new one.
Faced with rising employment and real estate costs at a distribution center in Carson, Calif., Hedwin Corp. began looking for a new location to serve a customer base that's predominately in northern California.
Hedwin's answer, like other companies that have wanted to be close to California markets without facing the hassles of actually being in California: Reno.
The company headquartered at Baltimore plans to open a distribution center in early September at 9175 Moya Blvd., says Solis, Hedwin's vice president of engineering and sales.
The 44,100-square-foot space in Stead is in a building once occupied by a PetSmart distribution facility.
The company initially will employ eight. The Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, which worked with the company as it considered Reno-area sites, estimates that the first-year economic impact of Hedwin's facility will be nearly $1 million.
Hedwin makes high-performance products for handling liquids in the medical and food services industry as well as other industrial applications.
Its signature product is the Cubitainer the familiar "bag in a box" and it also makes a full catalog of plastic containers, liners for drums and pails, injection-molded closures and specialized products for handling liquids.
Most of the work at the Reno facility will involve distribution to West Coast customers, but Hedwin also expects to handle some light assembly work as well in the new facility.
Despite the growing headaches of doing business in California, Solis says the decision to uproot after 40 years in the Los Angeles area was difficult largely because of longstanding relationships with employees.
But he says officials in Reno and the state government proactively reached out to Hedwin and helped smooth the company's decision.
Along with EDAWN, Nevada JobConnect and Truckee Meadows Community College provided information that the company used in its decision-making process.
Solis says the company has begun interviewing potential staff members, and it likes what it has seen so far.
"We are very impressed with the quality of the candidates that we have interviewed," he says.
Hedwin, which has been employee-owned since 2004, was founded in 1946. It employs about 300, most them at its Baltimore manufacturing and headquarters facilities.
Dave Simonsen, J. Michael Hoeck, Dan Oster and Michael Nevis of NAI Alliance represented both Hedwiin Corp. as well as the landlord in the lease negotiations for the new facility.
