CHESTERFIELD, Va. -- Two Richmond-area companies plan to add workers, officials said in separate announcements yesterday.
Merit Medical Systems Inc., a medical device manufacturer, intends to expand its Chesterfield County operation, eventually creating 75 jobs.
And Richmond-based technology consulting company CapTech will hire about 25 people locally over the next six months, it said.
Utah-based Merit Medical will invest $1 million over the next 12 to 18 months to expand its plant in the Rivers Bend Industrial Park, company and state officials said yesterday.
"Merit Medical Systems has become a nationally recognized name since its founding nearly 25 years ago," Gov. Bob McDonnell said in announcing Merit's plans.
The new, full-time jobs will be created over a number of years, said Greg Fredde, Merit's vice president for business development and government affairs.
"They will not all be created right away," he said. "We're in the process of looking at expansion of that facility both in physical footprint and equipment . . . over the next 12 [to] 18 months."
The majority of the positions will be for production workers, Fredde said, but Merit also will add support and managerial jobs.
"We're excited about this because the health-care and medical industry is one of our target markets," said Will Davis, Chesterfield County's director of economic development.
Merit's new workers will be added in groups of about 25 over the next three years, Davis said.
The company also is considering building a facility to consolidate its warehousing operation, Fredde said, and perhaps locate it in Chesterfield.
"We're just in the preliminary stages," Fredde said. "I think the preference would be to do something at the present location," but the investment would have to be financially and operationally sound.
Merit employs 105 workers now at its 100,000-square-foot plant, which assembles medical supplies into packs containing all the special products that hospital teams need for different medical procedures.
CapTech is looking for additional IT management consultants, said Kevin McQueen, the firm's director of business development.
"We have high standards," said Sandy Williamson, CapTech's CEO. "We interview a lot of people to make those selections."
CapTech, which has hired more than 70 new people so far in 2010, also has offices in McLean and Charlotte, N.C.
