HASTINGS  —  Design Concepts and Enterprises, LLC wants to stitch an addition onto its headquarters building for the second time in less than three years.

The manufacturer, which produces suture-attaching equipment and specialty prototypes while also designing and building custom equipment, plans to nearly triple the size of its building at 9 Kline Road in Hastings. That expansion will add 30,000 square feet to the facility, which currently stands at 12,000 square feet.

It is necessary to keep up with expected growth, according to Design Concepts and Enterprises Managing Partner Ted Vermette. The company generated about $3.2 million in revenue in 2012, up from $1 million in 2011, he says. In 2013, it’s targeting $5 million, and it wants to grow to bring in $10 million annually within five years.

“We’re a very fast-growing company,” Vermette says. “We’ve only been in business going on six years. July 7 will be our six-year anniversary.”

The physical expansion comes after Design Concepts and Enterprises started offering more to customers, according to Vermette. Its services had largely revolved around customers that needed attaching equipment.

“So if they have a device — it could be a needle, it could be any kind of device that needs something attached to it — we would do all the development work for them to produce equipment they needed,” Vermette says. “At that point, they’d go to somebody else and look for somebody else to do the manufacturing process, because we had no capabilities of doing that. After two or three customers going away because of that issue, we took half our building and we put in a clean room so that we could do finished medical-device goods.”

Design Concepts and Enterprises finished its clean room in January 2012. At the time, it had 10 staff members. Now it employs 20, and the firm could grow to as many as 50 or 60 workers by the end of this year if all goes as planned with its upcoming expansion.

Construction on that addition will hopefully start in the spring and wrap up in six to nine months, according to Vermette. The building is slated to cost $1.03 million, with expected hiring bringing overall expansion costs to nearly $1.5 million.

The Hastings manufacturer will pay for the addition using $500,000 from Empire State Development that is coming through New York’s Regional Economic Development Council initiative. It will also use a U.S. Small Business Administration-backed 504 loan, although it has not settled on a lender at this point.

Vermette founded Design Concepts and Enterprises in 2007 along with John Renzi and another partner who does not wish to be named. They started the firm after a company they worked for, surgical-needle manufacturer B.G. Sulzle, moved its Salina operations to Puerto Rico, Vermette says.

“At that time I was in charge of the suture-attaching portion of the business,” he says. “What they did for customers was, if they bought needles, Sulzle would supply them with machines or equipment that would allow them to attach needles or sutures.  So I was travelling across the world to train people on that business.

“When they moved to Puerto Rico, they could no longer afford that part of the business,” Vermette continues. “They offered me and my other partners the opportunity to start producing the suture-manufacturing equipment.”

Vermette and his partners started Design Concepts and Enterprises — their own business — in 200 square feet of leased space at 914 N. State St. in Syracuse. At that point, they outsourced all production except for one type of component, attaching dies.

They grew to the point where they purchased the facility in Hastings in 2009. The building was just 1,200 square feet at the time. In the fall of 2010, Design Concepts and Enterprises started an addition that brought the facility up to its current size of 12,000 square feet.

Design Concepts and Enterprises has about 95 customers throughout the world, 85 percent of which are international, according to Vermette. They include the Turkish company Dogsan Surgical Sutures and Taiwan–based Unik Surgical Sutures Manufacturing Co. And Surgical Specialties Corp. of Reading, Penn. is considering transferring production to Design Concepts and Enterprises — it’s one of the driving forces behind the upcoming expansion.

The Hastings–based manufacturer isn’t limited to suture-attaching equipment, or even the medical industry, Vermette says. It’s a full prototype design shop, and one of its frequent clients is the analog microelectronics producer M.S. Kennedy of Clay, he says.

“We’re very diversified,” he says. “There’s nothing we won’t take on.”

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com

AUBURN — Douglas Weed is the third generation of his family to own and run Auburn–based New Hope Mills, Inc., succeeding his father as president and CEO and sole owner of the company Jan. 1.

The Weed family acquired the business, which got its start in 1823, in 1947. New Hope Mills produces a variety of baking mixes for pancakes, muffins, and other products.

About half the firm’s business comes from selling its products under its own brand and half comes from private labeling its mixes for other companies, Weed says.

Weed first started working for New Hope Mills as a child. He says he’s worked on every aspect of the business, from the cleaning crew to executive-level jobs.

Weed’s father Dale left the business to start a new company.

“He found that was his way to move on,” Weed says. “That was his way of separating himself.”

As for his goals as CEO, Weed says he wants to grow the company’s own brand to be a bigger part of its business. The firm has expanded its line of pancake mixes to include a number of different flavors and not all of its customers carry all of the flavors, which leaves room for growth.

New Hope Mills’ products can be found in grocery stores including Wegmans and Price Chopper locally and in chains throughout the Northeast, Weed says. The company also has a presence in Ohio and in some other areas along East Coast.

Many customers still visit the company’s store in Auburn or order from its website if they can’t find the products they want in chains, Weed notes. New Yorkers who move to other areas of the country continue to order New Hope Mills’ products even after they leave, he says.

The firm is situated in 30,000 square feet at 181 York St. in Auburn and employs 40 people.

The business relocated to its current location in 2004 from its original site in New Hope. Weed’s family still owns the old location, which includes a number of buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

Weed says he wants to focus on implementing some lean-manufacturing initiatives at the company. He took part in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Emerging Leaders Initiative last year, which he says was a valuable experience.

“That really pushed me to think in a little bit different fashion,” he says. “I have my strategic growth action plan that I’m still working off right now.”

Forming an advisory board is on Weed’s agenda as well. The idea, he says, is to tap some outside expertise.

New Hope Mills is investing in research and development, Weed adds. The company is working on new ideas for products and recently introduced a line of gluten-free mixes.

Four of Weed’s five siblings and two of their spouses work at New Hope Mills, along with Weed’s mother-in-law.

Promoting the family dynamic at the company is a priority, Weed says. No members of the fourth generation work at the business yet, but Weed says he wants to foster continued family involvement.

“It is something I would like to cultivate,” he says. “When it goes into the fourth generation, I want it to be successful.”

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com