Manufacturing
2018 Washington Manufacturing Awards, Manufacturer of the Year (Large Firms): Vigor Industrial
Vigor Industries wins gold in the Manufacturer of the Year for large firms category.
By Bill Virgin May 1, 2018
FLOATING: Frank Foti is CEO of Vigor Industrial.
This article appears in the May 2018 issue. Click here for a free subscription.
GOLD AWARD
Vigor Industrial, Seattle
Industrial investor Frank Foti bought a struggling Portland shipyard in 1995 and proceeded to build it into the Northwests dominant maker of big vessels, adding Todd Shipyards and its Harbor Island facility in 2011. That decision has given it the room to take on such big projects as building the latest round of car ferries for the state of Washington. Vigor has continued to grow and diversify; in 2015 it bought Kvichak, a Seattle builder of work boats used for harbor pilots, firefighting, security patrols and oil-spill response.
Today, Vigor has 650 employees in the state at Seattle, Vancouver, Tacoma and Port Angeles. And Vigor hasnt stopped investing in its business. In 2017, it bought a 640-foot dry dock in South Korea and earlier this year had it hauled to Seattle. The next big opportunity for Vigor: recapitalization of the North Pacific fishing fleet and replacement of aging vessels with larger and more efficient boats.
See the full list of winners from the 2018 Washington Manufacturing Awards here.