BANGKOK -- Fabrinet has begun construction on its newest facility, on the company's new campus outside of Bangkok.
The EMS company expects the new 550,000 sq. ft. building in Chonburi Province to be complete in about a year, said CEO Tom Mitchell.
Fabrinet closed on the purchase of the land for the new campus last December, and expects to begin occupying the new building in late fall of 2016.
CFO Toh-Seng Ng said the company was about 90% full in terms of the plant's physical space at its existing facility in Thailand, but in the interim will continue to add additional equipment lines within the existing building. The current site is more than one million sq. ft. in area.
"On the basis of equipment, we believe we are currently at approximately 75% capacity. Therefore, we believe we have significant room to continue to grow and meet customer demand even while our new facility outside Bangkok is being completed.
"While we have ample capacity to meet increasingly customer demand," Mitchell said, "we expect this new building ... will help us meet our growing demand."
Fabrinet has budgeted $40 million in the current fiscal year for land purchase and construction of the new manufacturing facility. The new space is on a 48-acre site in an industrial park about 123 meters above sea-level, in the southeastern Thailand province of Chonburi.