Correction: This version updates the final location of a band shell that was fabricated by Manufacturing Methods. It was placed at Port City Marina.

New space has given Leland-based Manufacturing Methods more than room to grow. It has also sparked new areas of endeavor for the young company.

In December, Manufacturing Methods consolidated its machine shop, fabrication facility and powder coating operation, which combined occupied about 20,000 square feet of space in Leland and Wilmington, into one 40,000-square-foot plant in the Leland Industrial Park. Now, said David Ott, the company’s chief financial officer and vice president for sales and administration, Manufacturing Methods anticipates as much as 60 percent growth in 2016.

“We’re trying to add manufacturing product lines to our sales mix. Before, we were pretty much a job shop, which has its ups and downs,” Ott said Wednesday.

Founded in 2007, the company found early success designing, manufacturing and assembling components for customers in the power, communications, medical/dental, marine and industrial automation industries. It embraced lean manufacturing practices under the guidance of Ott, a retired engineer and manufacturing consultant, and was able to improve its productivity significantly by 2013. Ott was initially the company’s consultant but owner Pete Peterson brought him aboard full-time later that year.

Since its move, Manufacturing Methods has attracted one new major product line from a dental supply company: it has just begun making foil retainers used in tooth restoration. The retainers, in several sizes, are packaged with the dental tools needed for the procedure and the kits (shown at right) are sold nationally. A new furnace that is currently on order will increase production capabilities. The long-term contract should ultimately be worth $1 million annually, Ott said.

Manufacturing Methods counts a number of major companies in the Leland-Wilmington area among its customer portfolio.

“We’re chasing nuclear components, and also components for coal plants,” Peterson said. “We have a new water jet cutter that can cut through metal up to 6 inches thick.”

Peterson said the company currently makes metal canopies for fishing boats and may get into some other consumer goods. He pointed out a batch of oyster-shucking tables he devised to fit over trash cans. The tables, powder coated for weather resistance, were originally intended for a few friends, but Manufacturing Methods started getting orders for them and has continued production.

Football fans may have seen Manufacturing Methods’ capabilities on display at the past two Super Bowl games. The company partnered with Rocky Point-based Filmwerks to design and produce movable media booths for the football championship. It also created a see-through mobile booth for Thursday Night Football this past year, again in collaboration with Filmwerks. More recently, it fabricated the new band shell for the Port City Marina in downtown Wilmington.

With machining, fabricating and powder coating under one roof, Manufacturing Methods can vertically integrate its work, saving money and increasing capabilities, according to Ott.

“We’re still lean, but on a much bigger scale,” he said, adding that, with increasing capabilities, the company will be looking for customers further afield. New sales efforts will target potential clients throughout the state and into South Carolina.