Why Vigor Chose to Title Sponsor the Seattle Maritime Festival: "Industrial jobs matter"

The Vigor Seattle Maritime Festival 2012 May 8-12 is an entertaining, delicious and potentially career-launching opportunity to learn more about the multi-billion-dollar maritime industry on the Seattle waterfront. Who is Vigor Industrial, and why would they do this?

“These industrial jobs matter,” said Frank Foti, president and chief executive officer of Vigor Industrial. “We are Vigor as in vigorous, and when the opportunity presented itself we vigorously pursued it, because we are proud of this great industry, want more people to know about it and believe it has a great future.”

Vigor currently has about 927 Seattle-area employees.

This is the first year the Propeller Club Port of Seattle Chapter offered a member of the industry the opportunity to be title sponsor of the Club’s annual showcase of the maritime industry and the important role it plays in the Puget Sound economy.

“Maritime in all its aspects is huge for Seattle and huge for the Pacific Northwest,” Foti said. “Vigor is all about delivering great products and services through quality living-wage jobs that build and sustain communities. We are honored to sponsor this great celebration of what the industry means to Seattle and the region.”

The Festival includes the world’s largest tugboat races; a “quick and dirty” boatbuilding competition; two chowder cook-offs; a career day for job seekers, students and others to learn about employment opportunities in the maritime industry; and numerous tours, demonstrations and other activities, including some specifically focused for kids.

Vigor Industrial started in Portland in 1995, and today its companies directly employ nearly two thousand people from Portland to Tacoma, Seattle, Port Angeles, Bremerton, Everett and Ketchikan, Alaska. Vigor has been in Washington since 2002 and in Seattle since 2010 with the purchase of Todd Pacific Shipyards.

The company is building new ferries for Washington State Ferries, engaged in ship repair and fleet modernization for a variety of customers in government and the private sector, including the Coast Guard, Navy, and energy, fishing, shipping and other interests, and also builds barges and other marine and non-marine structures.

Recent projects in Seattle include oil and gas exploration platforms for the rapidly expanding effort to find new energy sources off Alaska. The company also builds filters that turn methane gas into electricity and is partnering with developers in Oregon and around the country to fabricate, test and deploy wave buoys to generate electricity.

Each direct job at Vigor supports another three or four additional positions, including an estimated 4,300 jobs for regional vendors, subcontractors and suppliers.

“Our company name may be relatively new to Seattle but many in our workforce were with Todd, and have family employment histories with Todd and in maritime that go back multiple generations,” Foti said. “We are proud of that great legacy and of our role in helping sustain and build this industry in Seattle and throughout the Pacific Northwest.”

Click here for a schedule of the Vigor Seattle Maritime Festival activities.

About Vigor Industrial
Vigor Industrial is a privately owned group of companies with close to 2,000 workers providing metal fabrication and maritime construction, repair and modernization services to commercial and government maritime and industrial customers in seven locations across the Northwest. Vigor people build, repair and modernize ferries, fishing vessels and workboats, barges and more. They also maintain icebreakers for the U.S. Coast Guard, renovate aircraft carriers for the U.S. Navy, fabricate alternative energy devices and install environmental upgrades for legacy energy platforms.

About the Propeller Club, Port of Seattle Chapter
The Propeller Club, Port of Seattle Chapter is a civic, social and charitable organization that promotes maritime commerce in the Puget Sound region. With a membership of nearly 200 from diverse sectors of the industry, the Club sponsors the Seattle Maritime Festival each May and supports other events and activities to promote maritime commerce and businesses in the region and raise money for charitable donations to the Sea Scouts, the Catholic Seamen's Club, and other maritime causes. For further information, call 206/787-3163 or visit www.SeattlePropellerClub.org.