The economic slowdown isn't stopping the folks at Global-Flex Manufacturing.

After nearly eight years in a cramped building in north Redding, Global-Flex this week is moving to a facility on Charles Drive that's nearly twice the size of its old home.

Global-Flex, which has 12 employees, makes stainless steel flex hoses and expansion joints for large industrial and commercial construction. The company distributes its products around the world. Global-Flex hoses were used in the construction of the Disney World in Japan.

The global demand for Global-Flex's products has helped it weather the current economic storm.

Sales in 2007, up 35 percent from the prior year, were about $3.5 million, company co-founder Greg Hartley said.

"We do not rely on the Redding economy or the Northern California economy," Hartley said.

Hartley and partner Tom MacKenzie founded Global-Flex in 2001. Hartley was living in Oregon and MacKenzie was in the San Francisco Bay area, where he still lives.

Global-Flex did an Internet search and hooked up with Jim Zauher, the Redding economic development director who in 2001 was president of the Economic Development Corp. of Shasta County. Hartley credits Zauher for selling the company on Redding.

While Hartley forecasts Global-Flex's business will decrease 4 percent this year, he feels fortunate, considering what's happening in other sectors of the economy, like home construction.

Global-Flex's new plant on Charles Drive features a 10,000-square-foot warehouse and 2,000 square feet of office space. The building used to house Tuxedo Den.

Hartley said the larger facility could accommodate 40 employees in the next five years.

Global-Flex immediately is hiring two more employees and adding a swing shift to meet production demand.

The company hasn't grown as fast as initially projected - the startup company in January 2001 forecast 40 employees in five to six years and $6 million in sales in the same time - but Hartley said Global-Flex is doing well.

That's because sales aren't driven by home construction. Global-Flex's products are used in the construction of power plants, food-processing facilities, ethanol plants and Las Vegas casinos.

"Las Vegas is still a huge market for us," Hartley said.

Meanwhile, Zauher said the city recently completed a survey of about 30 local manufacturers that say they will see job growth over the next year.

"Unless they're tied to home construction or residential real estate, they are a little more insulated from that problem," Zauher said.

What's more, the devaluation of the dollar has helped open up global markets for north state manufacturers, Zauher said.

Reporter David Benda can be reached at 225-8219 or at dbenda@redding.com.