News

Calif.-based LED manufacturer relocates to southern Maine

BY MAINEBIZ STAFF

Cirrus LED Systems, a worldwide leader in LED technology and a member of the Inc. Magazine list of fastest-growing private companies in the nation, has relocated its headquarters and manufacturing operations from San Francisco to Saco.

Prior to the move last month, the company had maintained a small East Coast sales office on Middle Street in downtown Portland. A West Coast presence will be maintained as part of this expansion.

“Our relocation to Maine for our manufacturing operations and headquarters was driven by a multitude of factors,” David Rycyna, CEO and founder of Cirrus LED Systems, said in a news release. “Cost reigns high among them. However, finding a destination where we could build a strong team through access to local talent and a strong life/work balance was a deciding factor. Working in ‘Vacationland’ has its perks.”

The company’s headquarters in Saco is located at 47 Spring Hill Road.

Rycyna’s rationale for the move supports a 2016 study comparing 45 cities in the United States and abroad showing Portland and southern Maine to be in a favorable cost range for companies seeking to relocate corporate back office operations to lower-cost locations.

Cirrus LED Systems has three distinct divisions: designing and engineering outdoor high-resolution LED displays and electronic message centers, horticultural LED lighting and cloud-based digital display content management software.

The company, which has traditionally focused designing and engineering products for a global supply chain, is complementing its strategy by building a largely automated clean-tech electronics factory in its new Saco home. The development of this robotic factory of the future, meant to serve all its divisions, has already begun to come together in the new Saco facility, the company stated in its news release.

“A critical component of our continued growth is closing the gap between product development engineers and the factory floor while leveraging the full potential of what automation technologies are allowing,” said Rycyna. “The world of robotic manufacturing today is massively disruptive to the status quo of how manufacturing was done. It’s virtually a next industrial revolution that moves by leaps and bounds every year. We plan to ride this wave of change and continue as innovators in this space to serve our customers, employees, and community with the greatest value possible.”

The seven-year-old company’s portfolio of LED displays in place around the country ranges from Los Angeles International Airport to the Acadia Federal Credit Union in Fort Kent.