Praegitzer buy of Intergraph PCB set

Electronic News, March 16, 1998 by Heidi Elliott

Dallas, Ore.--Praegitzer Industries Inc. is acquiring the printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication facility of Intergraph Corp., giving the company its first East Coast presence.

Praegitzer last week agreed to acquire Intergraph Printed Circuits, in Huntsville, Ala., for an undisclosed amount of cash. The deal is expected to close this month. The Huntsville facility has 98,000 square feet of manufacturing space, with 130 employees. Praegitzer will be making capital investments in the facility and will continue to make PCBs for Intergraph, which are used in ICS workstations and servers, and plans to expand its capabilities in the military market. The Alabama operation has the capability of producing multi-layer circuit boards in less than five days and can provide pre-production product in a two--to three-week timeframe.

Matthew Bergeron, president and chief operating officer at Praegitzer, said the acquisition will mean the company has a close facility to service customers located in the Southeast, such as SCI and Avex. In the absence of such a facility, Mr. Bergeron noted, the company would have to transport product from one end of the country to another. This acquisition enables Praegitzer to have a more rapid response time. "The transportation time from the West Coast to the East Coast has at times been a problem in meeting ultra quick turnaround times," he said. Now orders for product in 24 to 48 hours can be more easily met. Praegitzer has five other fabrication plants in Oregon, California, Washington, and Malaysia. The company also has 13 design centers, mostly in the U.S.

Rita Glover, a market analyst market research firm EDA Today, said the move has broader implications. "I think it's a good deal," said Ms. Glover. "For the PCB industry, this is the start of a trend toward full servicing. I think others will follow."

She believes this deal signals a trend toward one-stop shopping, where PCB service companies offer a range of services from board design to manufacturing, even sometimes including board stuffing. With this acquisition adding to its present operation, Ms. Glover said Praegitzer has created "hubs" or design factories, around which they offer services--a new step for the industry. "It used to be that they just did the PCB layout, now it's everything including design," she added.