Canadian company Protocase and its subsidiary division 45Drives have hired their first employees in the Wilmington area.

The Nova Scotia-based firm announced last year that it had selected Wilmington for its first expansion into the U.S. As of Friday, Doug Milburn, co-founder, vice president and board chairman of Protocase, said the firm had hired six employees in the Wilmington area, with more anticipated in the coming weeks and months.

“We expect the company’s going to increase employment by about 100, and that will pretty much all be here,” Milburn said. “I would expect about 100 this year.”

Those new hires will help the company build out a sales team, fill engineering positions for Protocase, the company’s rapid manufacturing division, and build a service team for data storage division 45Drives.
  
“We’re very organic in the way we grow,” Milburn said. “We need to build the service team because our service hours that we provide clients are going up and up at a dizzying rate.”

Colby Davis, who graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in December with a degree in cybersecurity, is one of 45Drives' first Wilmington-area employees.

Davis said he learned about Protocase and 45Drives during a UNCW career fair. He and two other local new hires flew from Wilmington to Nova Scotia just before Christmas for two weeks of training at the company’s headquarters.

“We call it aptitude and attitude hiring that we do, and we train intensely,” Milburn said. “So these guys got hired, and then they hopped on our King Air and flew to Nova Scotia.”

The company plans to fly each Wilmington-area employee to Nova Scotia for training on the company’s culture and job-specific skills. While Davis said his cybersecurity degree gave him a foundation for his role, the training allowed him to understand and learn the company’s processes.

“Everything's done in-house here, so, yes, there is a bit of a learning curve,” Davis said, “but again, they have all the resources in the world for you.”

When Protocase announced its expansion into Wilmington last year, company officials said the move was strategic because it allowed the company to better serve its American customers and made it easier to work in the aerospace and defense industries, which can require certain clearances.

Protocase hired its first Wilmington-area employee, an office administrator, at the end of September. The firm hired three data storage specialists, including Davis, in mid-December and hired two design team members last week.

Both Protocase and 45Drives are looking to recruit graduates from UNCW and Cape Fear Community College and those leaving the military as prospective employees.

“Having three good sources of people who were entering the employment market,” Milburn said, “it's just absolutely wonderful for us.”

The company’s office space on the fourth floor of Skyline Center at 929 N. Front St. in Wilmington is currently “up and running,” Milburn said, with some ongoing renovations still taking place. The firm is leasing roughly 5,100 square feet in the building from the city of Wilmington for up to nine years.

Protocase officials have said the company plans to establish a manufacturing facility that could employ around 400 people in the Wilmington area in the coming years. Milburn noted that the company’s recent strong financial performance has helped fuel its ongoing growth.

"All our growth is just shifting to here," he said, "so we're just full speed ahead."