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Naples based hurricane shutter, storm shutter and awning manufacturer, High Velocity is named one of six EDC winners this year. High Velocity was named the winner of the 2005 Excellence in Industry Awards. The company is well known in Naples, Florida for manufacturing and selling precision-engineered hurricane and storm shutters. The Economic Development Council of Collier County recognized them at a ceremony at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts On Thursday night.
Founded in fall 2002, the company now has nearly 40 employees, many of them trained through a grant from Workforce Florida Inc. to manufacture and install the company's products.
"We are trying to hire 25 more people," said John McEnroe, general sales manager. "We are adding a second shift for production and we're looking for fabricators and technicians."
In July, the collier county Commission approved $519,000 in incentives to help High velocity expand. The money will help the company add 63 jobs with an average wage of $37,900 and build a new 100,000-square-foot plant near the intersection of Collier Boulevard and Interstate 75.
The company designs shutters for commercial and residential uses. Clients include Naples-based Kraft Construction and Bonita Springs-based developer WCI Communities.
The company has a division that's developing a distribution network for its shutter products, which carry the brand name "Category 5" because the product is built to protect against that kind of catastrophic storm.
The company recently introduced an innovative motorized accordion shutter system and there's interest in national and international distribution, McEnroe said. There's a patent pending on the product, which the company developed along with Somfy Systems in France.
The company expects its sales to total more than $5 million this year. By 2006, McEnroe said sales should exceed $10 million.
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