WOODINVILLE, WA - A Seattle maker of wood beer tap handles for breweries and tavern operators will open a 41,000 square foot plant in Woodinville, WA as it expands further into wood retail display cases, signage and blackboards.

Rather than enlarge an existing 450-employee woodshop in China, where all its wood and mixed-materials tap handles are fabricated, CEO Paul Fichter told the New York Times he plans on establishing production in the U.S.

China's rising wages, currency appreciation and uncertain business environment is expected to bring more wood products and other manufacturing to the U.S., according to a Boston Consulting Group study. "Our Chinese labor costs have risen 300 percent," Fichter told the Times.

Fichter founded Taphandles in 1999 as a designer and manufacturer of wood beer tap handles, opening the China operation in 2006.

"We’ve grown with the industry into a fully integrated branding and customized products company," the company says, designing the logos that go onto or are carved into handles, as well as packaging, merchandising products and ads and even websites.

The $11 million Taphandles expects to continue producing tap handles in China, while concentrating U.S. production on larger signage that is more costly to ship. The plant will use CNC machines, and jobs already posted at Taphandle's site include an ERP analyst to manage the company's Epicor enterprise resource planning system and senior designers and industrial designers.