Firm is Hayden-bound

A California firm that makes springs for the aerospace industry is moving to Hayden.

Titan Springs & Wire Products plans to start operations at a new, 15,000-square foot plant at the Warren K. Industrial Park in October. The company employs about 38 people in North Hollywood. Eight key employees will move with Titan Springs, which expects to hire about 10 workers here and gradually grow, said Judy Glenn, Titan’s co-owner and chief financial officer.

Anyone who’s stepped aboard a commercial airliner has seen Titan’s products at work, Glenn said. Titan’s springs cause emergency doors to snap shut, passenger seats to recline and move forward, and seat belts to tighten. The company also produced gold-plated springs for each of the space shuttles.

Though the average person has trouble thinking beyond “bed springs” and “those springs in ballpoint pens,” Glenn said there are hundreds of industrial applications for springs, which are found in every door that closes by itself and every gadget that snaps back into its original position.

Titan’s largest customer is the aerospace industry, which accounts for about 70 percent of the company’s $3 million in annual sales, Glenn said. The medical industry is also a big client. Titan makes springs for pacemakers and other medical devices. The company is a niche operation, focusing on small volumes of high-quality products, she said.

Glenn’s father, Joseph W. Park, started Titan in 1957. The company remains a family-owned firm. Glenn’s husband, Jim Glenn, is the president and chief executive officer. Her son, Vince DeSantis, is vice president of manufacturing.

Titan’s North Hollywood plant is located just north of Los Angeles – “in the heart of the aerospace manufacturing industry,” according to the company’s Web site. But the prospect of lower operating costs lured the firm to the North Idaho.

Bob Potter, a job recruiter who generates leads for economic development agencies in both Spokane and Kootenai counties, first started visiting Titan 3½ years ago. Judy Glenn ran comparisons on the cost of utilities, workers compensation and housing prices. Idaho offered significant savings, even though the cost of shipping raw materials to the plant went up, she said.

By that time, the couple was feeling “disenchanted with California,” Jim Glenn said. “They’re not a friendly state to do business in, especially if you’re a manufacturer.”