Applied Optoelectronics, Inc., a leading provider of fiber-optic access network products for the cable broadband, internet data center, and fiber-to-the-home markets, today announced that it has executed a lease for a new and larger facility in Taiwan that nearly triples its manufacturing floor space, and provides 268,000 square feet of total space.
"Our facility expansion in Taiwan is consistent with the previously announced planned capital investment and manpower in order to support rising demand in our data center and FTTH markets," said Dr. Thompson Lin, AOI's Chairman and CEO. "We have simply outgrown our existing facility and we are pleased to have found a much larger facility that meets both our current and future needs. The facility more than triples our available floor space and is better suited for a manufacturing environment than our current space. Additionally, our new lease rate per foot is less than one-half that of our current lease, providing operational leverage. We plan to begin moving manufacturing operations, on a staged basis, to the new location in July and expect to complete the move by Q1 of 2015."
The company negotiated a 15-year term, standard renewal-notice terms and discounted lease rates in the first four years. AOI plans to invest approximately $5.8 million to build-out the manufacturing clean rooms and premise improvements to ready the facility for manufacturing and R&D efforts. The company expects to fully vacate the current premises before the lease expires in Q1 of 2015.
AOI's existing facility in Taiwan occupies approximately 61,000 square feet on four floors in a high-rise building. The new facility is a more traditional manufacturing facility, located just 20 minutes from our current facility, and in a more suitable industrial park.
Source: http://ao-inc.com/