"We're going to grow no matter but it will happen in the near future that we will move some work from China to Bulgaria and to India, for our very cost-sensitive customers," Weinmann said.

VEM is also planning to open a new facility in Thailand next year, where it does both mold making and injection molding in a facility in Rayong that opened in 2010, Weinmann said.

The new Rayong plant, which is also about a $1.5 million investment, will have a clean room for medical molding. Weinmann said VEM is seeing more demand from local Thai customers, in contrast to its operations in China, which are almost entirely export-oriented.

The China plant, in the southern city of Shenzhen, is VEM's oldest and largest mold making factory, with about 200 employees.

The Chinese plant remains competitive but needs to automate and upgrade to handle China's rising costs, Weinmann said. The Shenzhen plant will lead company-wide automation planning.

"We will be automating China first, and then what we learn from China we pass on to the other factories," he said.

China will become a more technology-driven operation.

"We see shifts going away from China, and if you want to stay in China, you have to specialize," he said. "So, we will specialize in China in smaller, high-precision molds. We have to go with the flow, and the flow is away from China to Europe and India."

The company, which opened its first factory in Shenzhen in 2003, launched its current period of heavy investment with the India operation last year, Weinmann said, because changes in the industry are driving both consolidation and higher technology.

"We have to get bigger; there's no other choice but to get bigger," he said.

The company has about $15 million in annual sales now, with global production of about 500 molds, but it is targeting $25 million in annual sales in five years, Weinmann said.

Weinmann also believes that technology, like 3D printing of steel molds and more general automation, could dramatically change the mold making industry in the next five years, making low-cost labor less important and elevating capital and technology.

"Disruptive technologies are coming everywhere," he said. "It's a little like the self-driving cars, there's going to be a major change.

"Or the electric cars, to go from combustion engines to electric engines, we're going to see similar disruptions in tool making."