TBA Inc., a Louisville, Ky., pipe manufacturer, will emerge bigger and stronger than ever from the ashes of a fire that destroyed two of its five production buildings last summer. David Stringer, buyer for the firm, said a new, 70,000-square-foot building will be complete by late spring or early summer, and will replace all five original buildings in its complex.
``We were completely out of business for two months after the fire in August 1994,'' Stringer said in a Jan. 26 telephone interview. ``But we will be able to add more extrusion lines in the new building when it is complete.''
The new facility will have 10 extrusion lines, including seven for PVC and three for high density polyethylene pipe. The company operated seven lines in the old complex of buildings. Following the fire, a sister plant in Birmingham, Ala., picked up some of the capacity of the Louisville plant. The Louisville facility employs about 50.
``Our annual output was about 30 million pounds per year, inclusive of both types of pipe, and we would expect the new building to allow us to make that much or even more,'' Stringer said.
The fire was labeled accidental and no one was injured, he said. Despite the setback, Stringer expects company sales to increase by 28 percent to $34 million in 1994.
The remaining buildings in the original complex, some of which were damaged but not destroyed in the blaze, were repaired and will be used for warehousing, he said.
About 10 percent of the pipe produced by TBA is made of recycled material, Stringer said. There are no plans to increase the amount of pipe manufactured using recycled plastics.
