A 40-plus-year-old Mooresville company that manufactures specialized electronics, including circuit board assemblies, plans to shut its doors, resulting in the loss of 97 jobs, according to paperwork filed with the N.C. Department of Commerce.

The first layoffs at General Microcircuits East West will take place April 22 and involve 11 workers. Atlanta-based East West Manufacturing, which bought the company in January 2019, plans to close the North Main Street plant, idling another 86 employees. East West did not give dates for the closure or return phone and email messages seeking comments.

General Microcircuits started with a simple idea: give customers access to the highest quality, most reliable products at the lowest possible cost.

That was the goal in 1980 when Ruffus Dalton, Staton Williams, and Joe Weddington founded General Microcircuits, Inc. (GMI) in Mooresville, North Carolina. Since then, this advanced electronics manufacturing company grew from providing simple solutions for electronic boards to assisting companies across a wide range of markets to refine existing products and launch new ideas with hands-on support throughout the entire process – from concept onward.

The family business continued when Rufus Dalton’s son, Dave Dalton, took over operations in 1990.  Though GMI had been operating solely out of its 95,000-square-foot facility in North Carolina since the beginning, Dave saw an opportunity in 2011 to provide customers in need of higher volumes with an alternative location and provide the same high quality of work in lower cost geography. After much consideration, San Jose, Costa Rica ultimately became home to GMI’s 14,000-square-foot facility due to its affordable and technically skilled workforce, uniquely vast free trade zone, and the drastically shorter U.S. shipping times.

A few years later, East West Manufacturing began a search to expand its U.S.-based EMS capabilities and invest in nearshore operations. As luck would have it, Dave was on a search of his own for a strategic partner to help GMI’s growth. The two companies were able to find familiarity and comfort in their similar culture, capabilities and a shared commitment to putting customers first. Thus, the companies combined in 2019 and soon after, GMI became known as East West’s Charlotte and Costa Rica divisions.

These two new divisions have proven highly valuable to East West’s growth, and the core business that once drove GMI’s success continues to prevail both domestically and nearshore. The combined organization offers customers access to a world-class global supply chain from prototype PCBAs, high-mix low-volume, high-volume, and turn-key box build projects.

East West Charlotte and East West Costa Rica core business include:

○ Complex PCBA Capabilities

○ Box Build Assembly Services

○ New Product Introduction

Industries served:

○ Automatic Meter Reading (MESH)

○ Network Infrastructure

○ Electrical Power Generation

○ Industrial Controls

○ Laboratory Instrumentation

○ Medical

○ Defense/Homeland Security

○ Radio Frequency Systems

○ Safety Systems

○ Vehicle Systems

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