Filtronic Comtek Inc., a Salisbury-based maker of cellular telephone equipment, will receive a state-backed $2 million loan to build a new headquarters building, the Maryland Department of Economic and Employment Development announced yesterday.
Filtronic, a division of Filtronic Comtek PLC of West Yorkshire, England, has 110 employees on the Eastern Shore and expects to add another 200 after construction of the headquarters and manufacturing plant is completed, Chief Financial Officer Jim Wilcox said.
The 62,500-square-foot building, which is scheduled to be finished next fall, will cost about $4 million, he said.
Mr. Wilcox said demand for the company's metal filters, which are placed in cellular base stations to filter unwanted signals, is booming.
The company, which started U.S. operations in 1993, reported sales of $6 million in the fiscal year that ended May 31, he said.
Filtronic is concentrating its operations on the Eastern Shore because the U.S. operation's founder, David Chambers, lives nearby, he said.
Mr. Wilcox said the company expects to more than double in size over the next two or three years.
The state will lend Wicomico County $2 million at 5.8 percent interest, and the county will lend that money to the company, said DEED spokeswoman Marilyn Corbett.