Ottawa and Allegan counties have been at the forefront of manufacturing and agricultural growth in the post-recession era in Michigan. Want proof? Look no farther than EBW Electronics.The rapidly expanding maker of electronic circuit boards, used primarily for automotive LED lighting panels, has been ranked as the fastest-growing manufacturing company in the state by Inc 5000 magazine.At a growth rate of 675 percent from 2010 to 2012, EBW Electronics also tops the publication’s list of the fastest-growing firms in a five-state region that includes Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.“The growth has been tremendous,” EBW Electronics President Cory Steeby said. “Staging ourselves for automotive LED has really helped. There are a lot more electronics in automobiles than there were five years ago. We’re in the right place at the right time.”It has been an impressive rise for EBW Electronics, which has been locally owned and managed since its inception in 1992.“EBW has had as rapid a rise as anybody, and they’re constantly growing,” local economic development official Randy Thelen of Lakeshore Advantage said. “Our team meets with them on a regular basis. It seems every time we go there, there’s another manufacturing line being installed or it’s firing up. It’s definitely a company on the rise.”EBW Electronics had shrunk to 25 employees at the pit of the recession in 2008.In the past three years, EBW has added more than 100 jobs, including rehiring several workers it was forced to lay off during tough times, and gone from a company with $3.4 million in sales in 2009 to an operation that produced $26.6 million in revenue last year.And that’s nothing compared to future projections.EBW Electronics, which now has 134 full-time employees, is in the midst of a four-year growth strategy to almost double the size of its facility at 13110 Ransom St. in Holland Township, while pursuing bigger contracts in the automotive and furniture industries. If it succeeds in meeting those goals, EBW Electronics projects it will become a $50 million company by 2015.“Yeah, we’re adding jobs and we’re growing faster than anyone else,” EBW Electronics Chairman Pat LeBlanc said. “Getting into LEDs is what really propelled us. And we’re not moving to Mexico.”LeBlanc is staunchly supportive of what he calls a highly skilled, highly educated and highly motivated workforce in the Holland area.“We’re bumping up against big corporations internationally and still winning business,” he said. “Why? We’ve been willing to invest in ourselves. We’re privately held, so we can move pretty quick.I think we’re in the right place at the right time, but you have to take care of people both internally and externally,” he added. “They’re both investments — whether it’s equipment or people.”The original footprint of the company’s building was 15,000 square feet. It more than doubled the size of the facility in 2011 with a 20,000-square-foot addition that soon will be adding a seventh automated manufacturing line and has room for more manufacturing capacity.And, yet, that’s still probably not enough room to accommodate future expansion.LeBlanc and Steeby are in the process of finalizing plans to knock out the rear wall of their facility and break ground in the spring of 2014 on a 30,000-square-foot addition. Even before then, the company likely will hire between 12-15 new people in the next few months.“It’s preparing for incremental growth,” Steeby explained.Thelen insisted he isn’t surprised to see EBW Electronics in the forefront of the manufacturing comeback in Michigan.“You drive around town and you see company after company that has quietly grown over time. They’re doing a lot of the right things. They’ve got a great work environment,” Thelen said. “It’s a place where the employees and line workers are in sync and have a high level or respect for one another.“We have a chance to work and visit with about 200 companies each year. In our community, it’s amazing when you have a plant manager that walks the floor and he knows the first names of the people working the lines. That’s the kind of culture we’ve got here,” he added.“And EBW has that in spades.”