Radiant Power announces Bradenton expansion as it adjusts to the cornavirus pandemic
Radiant Power, which manufactures products installed on commercial, business and general aviation aircraft, as well as military fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft, has completed a 10,000-square-foot expansion of its southern Manatee facility.
The expansion, the company’s fourth since 2012, grows its footprint to 50,000 square feet in the Sarasota-Bradenton Commerce Center, 7135 16th St. E.
Wednesday, company employees, wearing face masks as protection against the coronavirus pandemic, sat at their work stations assembling a variety of products.
“While the current commercial aerospace market and conditions are challenging, we are pleased that we can still continue expanding our capabilities and capacity,” said Anish Patel, president of Radiant Power Corp & Dukane Seacom.
Radiant Power has not had furloughs for its team of 135, but it has shifted to a three-week work month — three weeks on, one week off.
Its military contracts have helped Radiant weather the pandemic better than many other companies, Patel said.
The expansion into a second building will be predominantly used for manufacturing and testing of Radiant Power’s flight deck instrumentation and includes three dark rooms for advanced photometric measurements.
The additional space will house Radiant’s most recent acquisition, the human machine interface product line of Spectralux Corp., which is moving to this area from Kirkland, Wash. The move is expected to be completed by late May or early June and could eventually add about 30 jobs.
A human-machine interface is the user interface that connects an operator to the controller for an industrial system, according to whatis.com.
Radiant Power is a designer and manufacturer of emergency power supplies, power management devices, flight deck instrumentation, passenger comfort electronics and sensors and instruments for the commercial and defense aerospace markets.
The company also specializes in the design, fabrication, and testing of underwater locator beacons and emergency locator transmitters with its Dukane Seacom business.
All engineering, manufacturing, testing, repair, sales and product support activities take place at the southern Manatee facility.
Radiant Power moved into its existing facility in 2010. The facility was expanded in 2012 to accommodate the growth of Radiant Power’s passenger comfort and power distribution lines.
In 2013, the company expanded again to absorb the Dukane Seacom business, which was previously located in St. Charles, Ill.
In 2015, the company added another 6,500 square feet to keep pace with market growth.
“Radiant Power’s decision to bring multiple expansion projects to Manatee County, demonstrates their confidence in the business climate and their ability to attract the skilled workforce they need to be successful. We are grateful for their continued investment in our community,” Sharon Hillstrom, president and CEO of the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corp. said in a text on Wednesday.
The EDC has often assisted Radiant Power with its training needs, Patel said.
In a 2018 Focus on Manatee column, Hillstrom noted that Manatee County’s aviation, aerospace and defense industry is relatively small in number of jobs, about 1,000, but those jobs are high-value.
“In the aviation niche alone, annual earnings per job average $57,000, compared with around $40,000 for all industries in Manatee County,” she wrote. “It’s also a growing sector locally and globally. Between 2016 and 2017, the sector experienced almost 15 percent job growth in Manatee County.”
Radiant Power is a HEICO company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under HEI.A and HEI.
