Infrared window firm plans 25 hires, expansion

LAKEWOOD RANCH — IRISS, a high-tech, infrared window manufacturing and distribution firm, plans to hire 25 people over the next three years and expand its facility nearly 50%.

The company's 33,000-square-foot, $5.7 million headquarters it opened in April is already too small, CEO Martin Robinson says. The firm, which makes industrial-grade infrared windows used by power generation facilities and other industrial customers, will add 15,000 square feet to the facility, according to a news release. The space will include room for three new products the company plans to release in 2014. The 25 planned hires will add to the 28 people already on the payroll at the firm, which has about $8 million in annual revenues.

“We chose our current site with expansion in mind; however, we never realized our growth would explode like it did in 2013,” Robinson says in the release. “We have grown our business organically, signed agreements with several electrical manufacturers, partnered with companies that have a lot of depth in key markets, and made our first acquisition of a company out of New Jersey.”

Manatee County officials approved up to $28,196 in performance-based incentives to aid IRISS with the expansion and new hires. The expansion, according to the release, also qualified for the county's rapid-response permitting program. The firm qualified for state economic development incentives in 2012, for its headquarters project.

“IRISS is proof positive that Manatee County offers the right combination of community assets and a business-friendly local government that fast-growth businesses are seeking,” Manatee County Administrator Ed Hunzeker says in the statement.