By: Deborah Johnson Wood
A $40 million Grand Rapids-based award and recognition company expects to generate 25 new jobs over the next year. The company, Baudville, has averaged 15 percent growth per year over the past decade, and predicts another 15 percent through 2009.
"We've rapidly expanded over the last 10 years to about 4,000 SKUs of products designed and created by us and products produced elsewhere," says Brad Darooge, president and CEO.
The company started in 1983 as a creator of video games, thus the play on the word "baud" for the name. But the firm found its niche in producing Baudville brand award and recognition products, and Award Maker software for creating paper awards and certificates.
In 2002, Baudville launched a second company, IDville, which specializes in photo security ID systems for businesses and organizations. Those systems include cameras, software, and hard-plastic printers.
Darooge expects the new jobs to cover a broad range of positions with an emphasis on near term product development and marketing for both brands and a focus on e-commerce. About 50 percent of its business is web-based.
"We focus on creating a culture that's focused on being an employer of choice," Darooge says. "We value the contributions of people at all levels, and we practice what we preach in recognizing the contributions people make."
A recent $1.5 million expansion doubled the size of Baudville's facilities to 65,000 square feet, the second doubling of size in three years.
Baudville has 80 employees, including 25 new hires in the past year.
Source: Brad Darooge, Baudville; Craig Clark, Clark Communications
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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