EMS Provider Shows off New Fayetteville Facility

Delta Group Electronics president and CEO Harry Mueller called it the “culmination of a process that began in 2007.”

The event was an open house at DGE’s new 36,000-SF Fayetteville facility, attended by a small crowd that included Fayetteville mayor Lioneld Jordan. A reception for the electronics manufacturing services provider’s roughly 50 employees was planned for later in the evening.

DGE is headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., with four other facilities spread across the United States. Its clients include GE Transportation Systems, Hamilton Sundstrand and Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems.

Operations at the new facility, off Interstate 540 near the Mountain Ranch Apartments, got under way Oct. 18, and account manager Mary Smith said production has been building since that time. About 95 percent of the company’s equipment now is in place, she added.

DGE’s former facility in Prairie Grove was about 12,500 SF and produced about 500,000 units in a peak month. That number is expected to increase to 700,000 to 800,000 in Fayetteville.

Additionally, the new building includes a loading dock, dedicated storage and shipping areas, meeting and training rooms, a media room and a significant amount of office space. DGE officials have said the company could add as many as 75 employees in the next one or two years.

“Harry had a vision for this facility and he carried that vision out to a tee,” said Tommy Van Zandt of Sage Partners.

Van Zandt was instrumental in site selection on the project, and credited fellow managing partner Brian Shaw for cementing the deal. The deal involved land purchased from Coco Mountain Ranch LLC, previously owned by Gene Cauley. Cauley, a former Little Rock attorney, was convicted in 2009 of defrauding clients of more than $9 million.

Mueller said previously an additional two acres is available should production needs merit an expansion. C.R. Crawford Construction was the general contractor.