Steve Mattson, CEO of Great Lakes Sound and Vibration is seen Wednesday. Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist visited the business this week to announce the business has received a grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund. (Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON COUNTY — Great Lakes Sound and Vibration (GLSV) was one of two Houghton County high-tech business working in the defense industry to receive expansion grants through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the state of Michigan this week.

Great Lakes Sound and Vibration was established in 1996 with a focus on noise and vibration engineering, primarily for military vehicles and aircraft for the Department of Defense.

It has expanded over the years to include structural design and analysis, custom prototyping, complete exhaust system development, and high-volume manufacturing. GLSV provides complete, customer specific solutions for noise, shock, and vibration problems in the North American defense market.

Steve Mattson, CEO of GLSV said that in the past decade the company has grown to about 10 times its original size. That growth trend has not slowed.

In 2019, GLSV found it necessary to expand beyond its Portage Township location.

As contracts increased, GLSV required an upgraded facility, additional equipment and new hires to support the contracts, the company was evaluating competing sites in northern Wisconsin.

With the help of MEDC, its Micro Michigan Business Development Program (MBDP) provided the needed incentive assistance to keep GLSV growing in Michigan. MBDP is an incentive program aimed at providing grants, loans and other economic assistance to businesses for highly competitive projects in Michigan that create jobs and/or provide investment and results in a net-positive return to the state.

With further assistance from the Northwest Michigan Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC), new U.S. government contracts and grants were awarded to GLSV. To fulfill new contracts with military customers, the company in 2019 purchased and rehabbed the former Goodwill Training Center at the Airpark.

With the support of MEDC’s programs and strategic processes, GLSV achieved its goal to make $10 million in revenue in 2020, five years ahead of schedule, the MEDC reported in 2022.

In that year, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Land and Maritime selected GLSV to supply exhaust mufflers for the U.S. Marine Corps Assault Amphibious Vehicle (AAV).

Once again, the company finds another expansion necessary. This expansion project, Mattson said, will include adding about 25,000 square feet to the current facility, including higher ceilings and increased overhead lift capabilities for manufacturing more and larger products for the U.S. Defense Industry, and particularly, the Navy.

The company was awarded $400,000 from the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) through a Michigan Business Development Program (MBDP) performance-based grant earlier this week.

“The Great Lakes Sound and Vibration project is an initiative to approximately double our footprint at the airport,” Mattson said, “because the increased size of the building that enables our business continually to grow in the Navy sector, with increased capability there as well as allowing us to expand into aerospace markets. The project is about an $8 million capitol investment and the creation of about 40 jobs.”

“We received similar support from the MEDC (Michigan Economic Development Coporation) in 2019,” Mattson said, “when we bought that building to start producing hardware for defense. We were able to fulfill all of our job creation commitments on that grant early, then re-up with this new expansion project.”