That East Coast search quickly zeroed in on Raleigh, N.C., when an influential German business publication ranked the city as the No. 1 spot for German companies to expand.

Makers of laser displacement sensors, used by manufacturers such as Ford, GM, and Caterpillar for minute measurements, Micro-Epsilon is just one of hundreds of electronics firms across the United States to open their doors or expand this year.

"We looked at Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit," says Martin Dumberger, research and development engineer for Micro-Epsilon. "We chose Raleigh because it is close to the Research Triangle Park, and close to universities."

Micro-Epsilon's foray into the U.S. will begin slowly. For now, the office is staffed with sales and technical support, due to the large U.S. client base. Manufacturing of the sensors will come at a later date.

To the west of Raleigh, Volex, Inc., makers of fiber cabling and applicators for electronic connectors, has just finished unpacking the last boxes at its brand new 47,000 square foot facility in Conover.

The company's new manufacturing home is in the Conover West Industrial Park, making access to roadways much easier than the company's previous, more remote location, according to Gail Bowman, administrative assistant.

Although the company wanted to stay in North Carolina, it looked at other locations within the state, Bowman says. Incentives for training, a favorable tax climate in Conover, and the growth opportunities convinced the firm to remain in the city.

Availability of good labor was also a major plus. In a recent two-day period, Bowman says the company had 30 job applicants. Volex's current head count of 100 should double within 12 months, and reach 250 in 18 months, she says.

Reversing a trend
In St. James, Mo., near the state's Ozarks region, USA Vacuum Industries has discontinued its purchases from a Taiwanese vacuum manufacturer, and set up shop in a shut-down factory.

"We were at a point where we wanted to have more input into the design, concepts and quality of our vacuum cleaners," says Bill Hinderer, executive vice president.

"Additionally, we were paying for all the freight, shipping and costs for these vacuums to be assembled in Taiwan, yet the major components came from the U.S. We started asking ourselves, 'How much labor costs are there?'"

Divestiture makes new opportunities
The ebb and flow of business cycles often dictate that giant companies acquire other firms, only to later spin off various departments down the road.

That is the case of NCR Corp., makers of retail electronic registers and point-of-sale devices, all to the benefit of South Carolina workers.

Intel Corp. now has its first presence in South Carolina after it hired 64 hardware design engineers from NCR earlier this year.

In an agreement with NCR, Intel announced the engineers will be involved with the development of high-end server building blocks based on the latest IA-32 and IA-64 processors. The design team will remain in Columbia, S.C., forming the Intel Columbia Design Center. NCR and Intel will continue to work closely on various products.

In another development, electronics manufacturer Solectron acquired NCR's West Columbia facility. In purchasing all of NCR's manufacturing assets, including the computer systems and retail solutions group, Solectron will soon invest $21 million, creating an additional 250 jobs.

NCR, which is becoming a service company, will continue to purchase its hardware products from Solectron, company officials said.

They joined the brand new American Disc CD-ROM plant, which opened in Modesto, Calif., 24 months ago, creating 300 new jobs.

Panasonic's plant in Torrance, Calif., is expected to employ 300 by the end of this year, with an anticipated capacity of 2 million discs by the year 2000. JVC's operation in Elk Grove, Calif., near Sacramento, has been staffed with 100 employees. JVC has invested $35 million in its new plant.

The electronics industry in California has shipped $120 billion worth of products in the latest recorded year. Electronics Business Today says the state headquarters 65 of the top 200 fastest growing electronics companies.

Putting a brownfield site back to work
Putting an electronics manufacturing facility on ground that was a landfill 50 years ago would normally prompt an instant rejection, but company officials from Pass and Seymour/Legrand decided to take a look anyway at a prospective site in San Antonio, Texas.

What they found was a massive 25-year-old concrete building with nearly 90,000 square feet, still in great shape, and "built like a bomb shelter," according to plant manager Tony Sutton.

The brownfield site, which had been empty for a few years, turned out to be the ideal site for the firm to expand its product line of light switches, dimmer switches, surge suppressers, and occupancy sensors for office buildings. Sutton said the company gutted the inside, leaving wide open expanses for its product manufacturing lines.

The company is adding a 15,000 square foot warehouse, which has required the disposal of dirt in an environmentally approved method.

The company carefully followed due diligence, with engineer testing, permits, and various agency approvals tacking on at least an extra six months to the project, Sutton says.

As an extra precaution, the company is leasing the property rather than purchasing, which actually helped expedite the move from its previous 55,000 square foot facility three miles away.

Sutton says the new facility will allow the company to move some of its more labor-intensive lines to San Antonio from its more automated facility in North Carolina. The company employs 225 workers, which could jump to 400 in the next two years.