PW MacKenzie Exhibit, a British Columbia-based company that designs trade show exhibits for Amer Sports, will open a U.S. headquarters in Ogden by the end of summer.
The company has taken a five-year lease on a 45,000-square-foot warehouse and office near downtown Ogden. Stationed at the headquarters will be Jared MacKenzie, PW MacKenzie's vice president of design and marketing; and Jason Wesley, vice president of finance and administration. As many as six local jobs will be created.
"One of our major clients, Amer Sports, is relocating into Ogden all of their winter sports brands, which include the Salomon, Atomic and Suunto brands," Rick MacKenzie, CEO of PW MacKenzie, said Tuesday.
"So they presented an opportunity to us, that because we already work for two or three of their brands, if we looked at Ogden as a base that we would be able to obtain more of their business," said MacKenzie, who was in Salt Lake City to keep an eye on exhibits his company had designed for several clients at the Outdoor Retailer show, which ended Sunday.
PW MacKenzie's world headquarters is in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company took in revenue of $2.5 million last year, and MacKenzie expects that figure to grow by about $1 million over the next year.
Most of that growth will take place in the United States, where other clients such as Marmot, a California outdoor clothing and equipment company, and Arc'teryx, a British Columbia outdoor gear maker, make most of their sales. MacKenzie said.
The expansion "is going to give us considerably more exposure and business opportunities," MacKenzie said.
The Ogden headquarters will also save money. PW MacKenzie will be able to store and build exhibits at the warehouse instead of trucking them from Vancouver.
Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey said he isn't surprised that PW MacKenzie followed a client to Ogden. City planners anticipated that would happen as Ogden's outdoor-focused economy matured, he said.
"We felt like the derivative jobs would come," Godfrey said. "Ogden is becoming the hub for the high-adventure recreation business and the organizations that support it."
pbeebe@sltrib.com
