But it is not looking for a building site as aggressively as it was only a few months ago. During 2000, MOEC tripled its manufacturing of products, evolving from a research and development operation of 28 people to a manufacturing company with 110 people in Watervliet. In June, it opened a manufacturing facility in Mannington, W.Va. Late last month, the company said it was laying off 20 of its Watervliet workers and furloughing 38 of its 76 employees in West Virginia. If you have good employees, good customers and good products, you grow.
Small companies have to grow, even if opportunistically.
MOEC cannot put off its move too long. Stewart said that space also has hurt his ability to attract employees. Joseph Gersuk, MapInfo's chief financial officer, said the company also is moving forward with implementation of an e-business program, and in the past four months has completed acquisitions in Australia and Canada. Gersuk said MapInfo is fortunate in that it has a broad revenue stream, with 40 percent of sales coming from international operations. The company also benefits from having a large installed customer base, he said.