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“CONGRATULATING FLOTATION TECHNOLOGIES” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Commerce was published in the Senate section on pages S13622 on Oct. 31, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CONGRATULATING FLOTATION TECHNOLOGIES
Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I wish to congratulate Flotation Technologies, an extraordinary global leader in the design and production of deepwater buoyancy products from my home State of Maine. Flotation Technologies of Biddeford recently received the Manufacturing Excellence Award from the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership, MEP, for ``superior manufacturing practices'' that have successfully propelled the firm into the international market.
Flotation Technologies creates and manufactures syntactic foam buoyancy and polyurethane elastomer products for the offshore, oceanographic, and seismic industries, as well as for the U.S. military. Founded in 1979, the enterprise has been manufacturing syntactic foam longer than any other company in business today. This year, to meet the company's rapid expansion, Flotation Technologies relocated to a 45,000-square-foot facility in the Biddeford Industrial Park. The new facility will allow Flotation Technologies to install state-of-the-art automated production equipment that will triple production capacity.
This pioneering company makes extraordinarily resilient products for extreme environments. Flotation Technologies' buoys are lowered miles below the ocean surface, where they face up to 10,000 pounds of pressure per square inch, equivalent to the weight of a truck. They are as dense as oak, yet still relatively lightweight, and the buoys can survive under the frigid polar ice in the Arctic and under the searing heat in West Africa. These high-quality products were even relied upon to help shoot the 1997 Oscar-winning blockbuster movie ``Titanic.''
Flotation Technologies began as a small family enterprise, primarily serving scientists engaged in oceanographic and earthquake research. In 2002, as energy prices rose sharply, interest in offshore exploration grew rapidly. Flotation Technologies' buoyancy products are crucial to support the miles of flexible piping needed to extract resources from the ocean floor. In the last few years, the company has become a major supplier of these products, and most recently, Flotation Technologies won a $4.1 million contract to build buoyancy modules for Frontier Drilling, a Houston oil company.
Expansion into this business has been a rewarding endeavor, and Flotation Technologies is setting its sights on further growth. The firm currently employs 42 people in Maine, and they expect to add at least 10 more employees by the end of the year. Revenues are expected to hit $10.5 million this year, and management is aiming for $30 million in sales within 3 years. Flotation Technologies recently worked with the Maine MEP to develop a strategic business plan that dramatically improved the efficiency of its operations. The Maine MEP is part of a nationwide network of technical, manufacturing, and business specialists linked together through the U.S. Department of Commerce. By implementing the Maine MEP's streamlining techniques, the company was able to double sales for 2006.
Despite such impressive growth, Flotation Technologies has remained in the hands of a tightly-knit group of family members. Tim Cook, the current president, is the son of the company's founder, David Cook. As Tim notes, his family has ``put it all on the line'' for this venture for nearly 30 years. I congratulate Tim and his family on their success and wish them well in the years to come. Their dedicated entrepreneurial spirit is very much a part of what makes our Nation great, and I am proud to have them in my home State of Maine.
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