Protolabs to open new Twin Cities plant

Quick-turn manufacturer Protolabs (NYSE: PRLB) plans to have a new plant opened by the end of the year in the northern Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park.

Protolabs announced the purchase of the 152,000-square-foot facility on March 16. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but county property records show the building was last sold for about $7.6 million in 2016 to Taylor Communications.

Maple Plain, Minn.–based Protolabs plans to expand the Brooklyn Park building by another 50,000 square feet and use it for CNC machining. The company will move 225 jobs at its plant in the nearby city of Plymouth to the new facility. Protolabs will then expand its injection molding capacity in Plymouth.

Overall, the new plant will create 150 new jobs at the company over the next three years, according to Protolabs spokesperson Abby Christensen.

The expansion to Brooklyn Park is but the latest in a string of moves Protolabs has been making to expand its manufacturing capacity to meet demand in medical and healthcare, wearables, aerospace, consumer products, electronics/components, industrial machining, and more:

• Over the past 12 months, the company in the U.S. has purchased more than 75 CNC mills and 25 injection molding presses;
• Over the same time period, Protolabs’ European operations bought 25 CNC machines and six injection molding presses for use in its Telford, U.K. plant.
• The equipment investments have grown Protolabs’ worldwide capacity to more than 1,000 presses, mills, lathes, press brakes, laser cutters and 3D printers.
• Protolabs late last year acquired Nashua, N.H.–based Rapid Manufacturing Group for $120 million — a deal that expanded Protolabs’ CNC machining capabilities and added sheet metal to the company’s list of quick-turn manufacturing services.
• Protolabs was also an early adopter of HP’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), a production-grade 3D printing technology.

“We are excited about the growth we’ve experienced in machining,” Rob Bodor, Protolabs’ VP and general manager for the Americas, said in a news release.

“Opening an additional facility in Brooklyn Park, along with investing in more machining and injection molding equipment around the world, demonstrates our ability to evolve and increase the services we provide to our customers as we capture share in this dynamic market,” Bodor said. “We helped over 35,000 product developers last year and this added capacity will provide the scale to continue serving companies from innovative startups to Fortune 100 companies and everyone in between.”