Pacific Sands moves to larger Racine facility

Racine-based Pacific Sands Inc., a manufacturer of cleaning, laundry and water treatment products, announced Tuesday that it has moved to a larger facility in Racine. The company moved from 14,000 square feet of space at 1509 Rapids Dr. to 31,000 square feet of space at 1701 N. Memorial Dr.
The both the company’s new location and its previous location are located within the former Hamilton Beach Manufacturing Co. complex.
The new location provides more space and greater efficiency, the company said, because it is all located on a single ground floor. The company’s previous location was in four separate spaces on two floors.
The company, which has 10 employees, needed additional space to accommodate its growth, said chief executive officer Michael Michie. The company says it has experience strong sales growth in its line of “green” cleaning products such as laundry detergents, non-allergenic body and hair washes and non-toxic cleaning products such as glass, floor, tile and kitchen counter cleaners.
“As an example, to support increasing orders, our inventory of raw materials in the first fiscal quarter of 2011 was nearly five times the level in the fiscal first quarter of 2010,” he said.
The company reported that its fiscal first quarter net sales increased by 24 percent to $314,779. The company reported a net loss of $11,750 for the quarter, however that was an improvement compared to a net loss of $65,317 in the previous first quarter. The company said its income from operations for the first quarter was $11,413, compared to a loss of $44,061 in the previous first quarter.
“With several years of consistent year-over-year sales growth and a promising pipeline of orders, we were pleased to find a facility in Racine that can accommodate additional manufacturing equipment and give us more space for raw materials and finished goods,” Michie said. “With relatively high vacancy rates in Racine’s manufacturing and warehousing facilities, we were able to negotiate a lease substantially reducing our cost per square foot compared with the previous facility. The cost of our new location will be approximately the same as we were previously paying.”