OGDEN — When ENVE Composites launched operations about a decade ago, President and CEO Sarah Lehman dreamed the company might one day become a leader in the world of advanced manufacturing of high-end, carbon fiber bicycle wheels and components.
Today, that dream has become a reality and helped solidify the Utah-based firm’s place as one of the anchors of Ogden’s long-term economic development strategy.
Lehman and other leaders of her company celebrated its 10-year anniversary by cutting the ceremonial ribbon on the newly constructed, 73,000-square-foot corporate and production facility located in the Trackline Economic Development area on Ogden’s west side. She said ENVE’s success has been tied to local growth since the day the company opened its doors.
“ENVE is part of Ogden’s fabric. It’s part of who we are,” she said. “We’ve seen ENVE grow while Ogden grows, and we’re growing in the same direction.”
Lehman said the city’s expansion strategy is “completely aligned with where we are.”
“What is good for ENVE is typically good for Ogden, and vice versa,” she said.
Since the 2002 Winter Olympics, Ogden has attracted some of the most well-known brands in the outdoor recreation industry, including ski giant Rossignol, global recreation conglomerate Amer Sports — which owns ENVE, along with ICON Health and Fitness among many others.
Over the past decade, those companies have produced more than 1,000 jobs in the outdoor recreation industry, with positions ranging from product design, engineering, production and distribution, finance, sales and customer service, according to Ogden's website.
Manufacturing, aerospace and advanced materials, information technology/software and outdoor recreation make up the major industry clusters the city has targeted in its economic development plan, according to the webpage.
Currently, the Ogden-Clearfield area employs an estimated 4,440 individuals in computer and math-related occupations.
Ogden is home to 17 companies in the aerospace and advanced materials industry cluster, while the broader northern Utah region is supporting more than 30 companies and approximately 16,500 employees. Aerospace jobs account for 13.4 percent of all manufacturing jobs in the Ogden-Clearfield metro area, with outdoor recreation comprising about 12.5 percent, the site stated.
Tom Adams, director of the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation, said ENVE’s expansion represented a strong statement to smaller brands that may be considering joining the industry cluster in Ogden.
“The closer you get to creating a community that is all about the outdoors, the stronger that community becomes,” he said. “
ENVE is the first tenant of the new Trackline development, but Lehman hopes that some of the future tenants will also be from the outdoor recreation industry in order to continue the positive momentum created by her company’s expansion and the city’s growing outdoor industry cluster. She also noted the importance of creating a diverse business culture going forward.
“(The city) has talked about putting a composites innovation center up here,” she said. “But just having good, thriving, innovative businesses that are here to stay would be great partners.”
Meanwhile, one issue that is creating a challenge, she said, is the lack of qualified, skilled labor — especially in advanced manufacturing.
“Unemployment in this state is 3.1 percent, and in order to grow we need a pool of labor to help us expand,” Lehman explained. “We need a good supply of labor that wants to be part of manufacturing.”
She said that getting young people interested in manufacturing careers is difficult but will be necessary if the industry continues to advance.
“You can make a good living in manufacturing,” she said. “We need more people to become part of what we’re doing on a daily basis.”
She said too many people think of manufacturing as blue collar, grimy work and fail to understand the opportunities that exist in the sector of advanced materials as well as engineering and design.
“The perceptions of manufacturing are dark and dirty,” Lehman said. “If we bring them in and show them (this environment) with people who care about each other … we can show them that it’s not our grandfather’s manufacturing.”