Like many of the corporations that you are familiar with today, we started small – a long, long, time ago.
As the story goes, the business that eventually grew into what is known today as CaliBaja Manufacturing was founded back in 1977 down a dirt road in Mexicali Mexico in an old, dusty, 3k SF warehouse which lacked air conditioning as well as any other “modern” comfort that would be taken for granted in today’s world. It was from this humble inception that our roots were established, and our story began.
Over the next 17 years, the business changed ownership a couple of times, took on new contracts, moved into a larger location, expanded its workforce, and matured.
In 1994, NAFTA came into force, and there was another change of ownership. The “CaliBaja” trade name was born, and the business was moved into one of the facilities that we still occupy today. It was the combination of the newfound security provided by NAFTA, coupled with the change in ownership that gave (what was at the time) our only customer the confidence needed to dramatically expand their footprint with us. Over the next 15 years, the relationship with this customer blossomed, allowing the business to grow from 60 employees to over 300, with the addition of new contracts / operations.
While all of this growth was welcome and allowed us to diversify our manufacturing experience, it was not until 2005 that we were contractually able to offer our services to other companies. For the next four years, we diligently worked to diversify our customer base. However, save for a few minor successes, we remained a captive audience to our original customer.
In 2009 the business was sold to the current ownership, became commercially known as “CaliBaja Manufacturing”, and following successful execution of our long-standing goal of diversifying our customer base, truly began the transformation into the company that you see here today:
In 2012 we were able to move our US-based operations out of a 3k sf leased building in Calexico, California to a 20k sf facility that we purchased in El Centro, California.
In 2013, we entered into a contract that allowed us to expand into a new production facility in Mexicali, Mexico. This brought our overall production footprint from 50,000 square feet to 75,000 square feet.
In 2015, we brought on some new customers, which led us to expand further into what we now refer to as our “Main” building. This brought our overall production footprint from 75,000 square feet to 115,000 square feet.
In 2016, we completed the acquisition of Jean Charles Mexico (“JCM,” a neighboring maquiladora that had been manufacturing soap and other personal care products since 1998). This acquisition effectively doubled the size of our workforce, added another 95,000 square feet of production space, provided us with ample room for expansion, and most importantly, further bolstered our team.
From 2016 to today, we have been parlaying the resources obtained from the JCM acquisition (both facility and team) to continue the expansion of our client base and overall expertise.
