Local Manufacturer Making Bomb Suits

By MAX R. MITCHELL

Johnson News Service

The Allen-Vanguard Inc. manufacturing plant here will be the sole facility to produce protective bomb suits under a $24 million military contract.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Thursday that the Ottawa-based firm, which has its main U.S. manufacturing plant in the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority industrial park, was awarded a $24,506,533 contract to make anti-improvised explosive device equipment.

The contract is expected to be complete by March 2011.

According to Allen-Vanguard President and Chief Executive Officer David E. Luxton, the project could lead the company to acquire more space in the industrial park and add to the 40-employee work force.

"It has been operating under capacity, so we are pleased for a lot of reasons to have the prospect now of more work," Mr. Luxton said.

The company makes electronic and protective armor clothing for law enforcement and military clientele in more than 120 countries.

It reported $51.3 million in revenues for the third fiscal quarter of 2009.

"That would be one of our more significant ones," Mr. Luxton said of the recent contract. "We've had much bigger ones and much smaller ones. We're happy to have them all."

The company rents a 3,213-square-foot space in the sixth building at the industrial park and a 13,405-square-foot space in the ninth building.

Along with CoorsTek, a Colorado-based company that produces vehicle armor, and Tulmar Manufacturing, which makes seat belts and safety straps for military vehicles, the company comprises a small defense manufacturing hub at the OBPA industrial park.

OBPA Executive Director Wade A. Davis did not comment about negotiations with Allen-Vanguard regarding expansion.

"Anything that brings jobs to Ogdensburg and the greater North Country region is a good thing, and we are working diligently to make that happen," he said.