Manufacturers in Washington State: aerospace at the top, wineries and food plants everywhere else

This report is for aerospace and industrial buyers looking for Washington suppliers, people weighing manufacturing work in the state, and B2B sellers covering Washington plants. It covers the federal count, the aerospace cluster and the very different food and beverage economy, the county split, the public companies headquartered here and where to find names.

Washington manufacturing at a glance

US Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, all of manufacturing (NAICS 31 to 33), Washington State:

Ranking the CBP state file ourselves, Washington is 17th by manufacturing employees and third by average manufacturing pay (the US average is $73,202). Manufacturing is 8.7% of the state's private-sector jobs, about the national share of 8.8%.

Aerospace: the biggest cluster

Washington has 16.9% of US aerospace manufacturing jobs, more than California (56,575), though California, Florida and Texas have more aerospace plants. The average Washington aerospace plant has 614 employees. The Census Bureau published an employee total for aircraft manufacturing but flagged it as high-noise (the noise it adds to protect confidentiality changed the figure by 5% or more), so we don't report it.

Boeing is the anchor. Its 10-K gives Arlington, Virginia as its headquarters, but lists Greater Seattle first among the major locations of its Commercial Airplanes business, and again among those of Defense, Space & Security. Greater Seattle Partners, the region's economic development group, also names aerospace and space manufacturers such as Blue Origin, SpaceX, ZeroAvia and magniX, and equipment makers such as Electroimpact.

Food, drink and everything else

We derived average pay from Census payroll and employment. Beyond aerospace, three things stand out:

• Drink. 392 wineries (second only to California's 1,714) and 253 breweries, averaging about 12 employees each.
• Food processing. 26 frozen fruit, juice and vegetable plants employ 6,842 people, 27.9% of that industry's US jobs and the most of any state. 64 seafood plants employ 4,800 at $80,142 on average.
• High-wage technology. Chemical plants pay $151,224 on average and computer and electronics plants $137,227; 72 semiconductor and electronic component plants pay $146,036.

The forest products industry is smaller: 115 sawmills and wood preservation plants with 5,573 employees, and 15 pulp, paper and paperboard mills averaging 247 employees each.

Where the plants are

King and Snohomish counties have 2,632 plants (40%) and 143,315 jobs (54%). Snohomish's average of 82 employees per plant is the highest of any large county. East of the Cascades, Spokane, Yakima, Benton and Walla Walla counties hold 1,040 plants, mostly small.

Plant size

That's 4,768 plants with 1 to 19 employees (72%), 1,359 with 20 to 99 and 459 with 100 or more: a few very large sites and thousands of small ones. CBP counts establishments with paid employees, not companies, so each plant counts separately and owner-only shops are excluded. (Employment: the week of March 12, 2023.)

Public manufacturers headquartered in Washington

EDGAR shows 31 listed companies with manufacturing SIC codes at Washington business addresses. Ranked by revenue, the top ten, with each headquarters and revenue figure confirmed in the company's latest 10-K:

Revenue is company-wide. For aerospace in detail, see aerospace companies in Washington; for the Seattle area's companies across industries, see companies in Seattle.

Where to find Washington manufacturers

Prospecting Washington manufacturers

Washington is two markets. The Puget Sound aerospace supply chain runs on AS9100 quality systems and customer approvals, so a new supplier often starts with one part number and a first-article inspection, and timing follows Boeing's build rates. The food, beverage and wood plants east of the Cascades and in the farm counties are smaller and often owner-run, and harvest and crush seasons shape when they buy and when they have time to meet.

Worked example: an industrial refrigeration contractor

Illustrative example. Columbia Cold Systems is fictional, as are its rates; the plant counts are Census data.

Columbia Cold Systems (columbiacold.example) services ammonia refrigeration and freezers for food processors.

• Washington fruit and vegetable preserving plants (77) and seafood plants (64): 141, averaging more than 100 employees.
• Columbia assumes four in five run a refrigeration system big enough to need outside service: about 113 accounts.
• With the maintenance or engineering manager and the plant manager at each, 226 people; a 7% reply rate gives about 16 conversations, and one service agreement per four conversations, 4 plants a season.

The research that matters is which plants are adding freezer capacity or a processing line before harvest. Bebop can search for "Washington frozen fruit, vegetable and seafood processors with 50 to 499 employees expanding cold storage or hiring refrigeration technicians" and research each one.

Subject: Refrigeration before [Company]'s next harvest run

Hi [first name],

I saw [Company] is [adding freezer capacity / hiring a refrigeration technician] at [site]. The weeks before harvest are when a compressor or condenser problem costs the most.

We service ammonia systems for Washington processors and do pre-season inspections that finish before the first trucks arrive. Would a check in [month] be useful?

[Your name], Columbia Cold Systems

Next step: for how aerospace and food plants organize their buying, read the manufacturing industry guide.