Burlington, North Carolina — Flexaust Co. Inc. is adding a new hose manufacturing plant in Burlington as part of the company’s strategic growth plan, which also involves projects in other plants.

The hose and pipe manufacturer is leasing the existing 57,000 square feet. Michael Harvey, vice president and general manager of Flexaust, said that the plant is located in Burlington and plans to spend more than $3 million in new equipment and infrastructure upgrades in the next two years.

He said that production is expected to start sometime in the first quarter of 2020. Flexaust plans to install 5 hose production lines. It is estimated that within two years, the number of employees will be close to 30, and after five years, the number of employees will be about 45-50.

Harvey said Flexaust is getting some financial help from the Burlington project's city, county, and state sources. This includes a reutilization grant to help reduce infrastructure costs, because the company is occupying an older building, which will be paid once the company reaches the expected work target for the factory’s opening.

The hose manufacturer decided to consider adding a plant in this area of ​​the United States because it covers 75% of the U.S. through its existing plant in Warsaw, Indiana; Amesbury, Massachusetts; and Las Vegas .

Harvey said: "It makes sense to consider putting something in the southeast because the customer base and the number of products enter the region so that we can better serve our customers."

Flexaust visited North Carolina and South Carolina and Georgia, where it owns a warehouse through one of its manufacturing representatives.

He said it makes sense to open a store in North Carolina because it has already set up a sales office there and provided it with some resources and some infrastructure.

According to Michael O'Brien, Flexaust's vice president of sales and marketing, the new facility will enable manufacturers to strengthen relationships with customers in the region.

"In that part of the world, we have some dust removal customers, we have some shipyards, and we have a better cargo route to Florida, which is a bit difficult for Massachusetts," he said.

Harvey added that the facility is only one mile from the I-40/I-85 exit, making transportation easier. "We are in a good position," he said. "Logically speaking, this part of the country is experiencing such a population surge, and you can reach a considerable proportion of the population in two days of truck time."

The Burlington plant will produce products for the company's Genesis, Flexaduct and Flexaust hose production lines. O'Brien said that not all products in these lines will be produced there, but some of the most popular products guaranteed by hose and pipe companies will be shipped within 24 hours. "Now every factory has inventory to support our distributor customer base," he said.

O'Brien said that the Genesis series is a polyethylene vacuum hose suitable for insulation blow molding industry, carpet cleaning industry, car washing industry and industrial vacuum applications.

The Flexaduct series are extruded hoses made of polyurethane, thermoplastic rubber, PVC and polypropylene. It serves dust removal, woodworking, lawn and foliage, furniture and factory maintenance and repair operations departments.

He said that the Flexaust production line is a neoprene and coated nylon and polyester production line, as well as some PVC coated hoses, serving the general, factory, AV and surface treatment markets.

Harvey said that new machines are being built to equip the Burlington plant. Flexaust purchases the extruder and then customizes all the proprietary hose manufacturing and auxiliary equipment needed for the machine, especially in its machining shop in its headquarters building in Warsaw.

Flexaust has also completed or planned other projects for each of the other three production sites.

O'Brien said it opened up a space of 10,000 square feet. Expanded at its Amesbury plant earlier this year. That is to accommodate additional production equipment, warehouse space and increase the size of the machining workshop there.

The company also added 27,000 square feet of warehouse space in one of its three facilities in Warsaw. According to Harvey, the building will now have 80,000 square feet, and once the latest expansion is completed, the total area of ​​Flexaust in Warsaw will reach 275,000 square feet.

O'Brien said that the company previously added three production lines and two overmolding machines to the expanded building, which took up some of the space previously used for storage. The project will support on-site inventory and temporary storage, which are required due to the equipment installed there.

"There will be more space to add more equipment," Harvey said, "but this is to help the current flow and efficiency of the building. Due to the limited space, we are dealing with things too often we have."

Once the Indiana expansion is completed and the Burlington plant is opened, Flexaust will turn its attention to Las Vegas and plans to double the scale of its business. Harvey said that this will require moving to a new location because the company is located inland and has the area of ​​an existing facility.

He added that the company is already building equipment that will be used for the expansion in Las Vegas because it makes more sense to work with Burlington's machines in order to obtain better procurement deals from suppliers.

Looking at the big picture, O'Brien said that as Flexaust has experienced growth, it needs to decide how to deal with the challenges of increasing capacity, handling transportation issues, and where it can attract experienced talent to the company.

Harvey added that the company must consider several issues. One is the company's growth in various regions of the country, as well as the wishes of some major customers, hoping that Flexaust can provide products from different regions from the perspective of disaster recovery and risk mitigation.

"It is obvious to us that we must continue to do many different manufacturing in multiple locations," he said. "Both the North Carolina factory and the expansion in Las Vegas will help us do this, so if one of our facilities has a disaster, we will not be restricted, and we can still produce products and ship them from different facilities. ."

O'Brien stated that hose and pipe manufacturers achieved approximately 20% growth between 2016-18. He said that Flexaust's market share is growing, but it is also making progress in some new markets, including some OEM customers for the marine industry, lawn and leaf harvesting equipment, agriculture and the floor care industry.

There have been some challenges this year, but income is still higher than 2018 levels. "It's not that stable. There are more peaks and valleys than in previous years," O'Brien said. "Compared with 2018, there is still growth in 2019. I think the economy is a little cautious now. I'm not sure if they are controlling inventory, which puts more pressure on production to meet future customer needs."

But the prospects are still sufficient for the company to continue its expansion plans. "We must have jumped off the cliff and there is no turning back now," he said. "We are very confident in our current customer base, our relationship with them, and new growth opportunities, and we think we can support our plan."

Harvey also stated that bringing the company closer to customers will "give our distributors a better opportunity to sell our products in the competition, because we are in these places. We can reach a larger part, not from one or two places." Shipment. The country therefore."

Increasing production capacity will also help Flexaust improve its ability to innovate new products. Harvey said: "Since the equipment runs very frequently in normal production, we need to relieve a little pressure so that we can be creative and bring new products that the market needs to the market."

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