(The Center Square) – The search is over for a new location for Sedro-Woolley based Janicki Industries, but it won’t be in the Evergreen State.
The company made it official on Tuesday, selecting Great Falls, Montana as the site to launch a large-scale expansion project with a total investment of $800 million.
They’re not moving out of Washington entirely, but this major expansion won’t happen in the company’s home state due to the current business climate.
“We like the idea of working with a government that understands business and will work us instead of against us,” said John Janicki in a Tuesday post on X.
Janicki focuses on high-end manufacturing for the aerospace, defense, marine, and space sectors and currently has locations in Sedro-Woolley, Mount Vernon, Hamilton, Bellingham and Layton, Utah.
“We’ve been looking at an expansion plan for quite a while. We really dove deep into it in the last year or so and started looking into other areas,” said Janicki’s Communication and Education Outreach Manager Nick Lavacca in a Tuesday interview with The Center Square.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet because John and Peter’s family are in Washington. All their grandkids and their kids are local, and they love the area,” Lavacca said.
“But Washington, as you know, is making it a little bit more difficult to do business here.”
The expansion plan calls for adding two million square feet of new production space over 10 years, and to create more than 1,000 manufacturing and engineering positions within the first five years.
Montana’s governor was quick to welcome the news.
“We are thrilled to welcome Janicki Industries to Montana and celebrate the company’s $800 million investment in Great Falls,” said Gov. Greg Gianforte in an X post. “Through its creation of over 1,000 good-paying jobs, Janicki will inspire innovation, strengthen our economy, and support our growing communities for years to come.”
Lavacca told The Center Square Janicki is not leaving Washington, but the high cost of doing business forced them to look at expanding elsewhere for large scale operations.
“One thing I did is I took our current electrical usage for the Hamilton campus (just outside Sedro-Woolley) and I just weighed that against the Montana Power Company,” he said.
“I looked at the difference in cost of what that same usage was in 2024 and 2025 and what we paid and what the cost would have been had we been over there. That’s substantial, right? So that’s one area of much lower cost,” said Lavacca who noted that saving on energy costs will allow them to reinvest and grow their company.
Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro-Woolley, told The Center Square that Janicki expanding in Montana and not Washington is a shame, but not surprising.
“The Janicki’s are a cornerstone of our economy here in Skagit County. They are very important employers, and they’ve been fantastic for the community,” said Wagoner. “It’s a shame to see them sort of pushed out of the state.”
Wagoner said Washington currently has a very unhealthy business climate.
“We have made policies in the legislature, and I’ve voted ‘no’ for all of them, that have made it so hard for businesses to make money,” Wagoner said.
“And you can’t blame them for going elsewhere. It’s a toxic business environment.”
Lavacca said majority Democrats in Olympia seem to think they can spend the profits of business better than the companies can.
“We feel that we can spend the money really well and create jobs that are good paying jobs that provide people with savings, ability to go to college, send their kids to college, buy a little piece of property, and have those opportunities,” he said.
“There’s a lot of things that other states like Montana and Idaho offer, that Washington right now is not offering,” he added.
Wagoner said in his community, it’s not just big businesses moving out or expanding elsewhere.
“It’s everything from little nonprofit thrift shops to restaurants and fabric stores. Everything is closing because they can’t afford to do business here anymore,” he said.
Supporters of the recently passed income tax and other business tax hikes have argued businesses won’t leave the state due to Washington’s strong foundation in tech, innovation, and quality of life.
Wagoner disagrees.
“The majority party has it backwards. The reason we have a skilled workforce is because we have Janicki Industries and we have Boeing, not the other way around,” he said.
“People came here because there were job opportunities and when the job opportunities go someplace else, the people will move there.”
The Center Square reached out to the office of Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson for comment on Janicki’s expansion to Montana, but received no response.
