Sequentia Inc., a producer of glass-fiber reinforced panels, early next year will expand its main factory in Grand Junction, Tenn., and close its plant near Kansas City, Mo. Although about 15 key people will be transferred to Tennessee, about 40 workers will lose their jobs at the Missouri plant, in Grandview, according to Sid Warner, vice president of manufacturing. Employees will be added at the Tennessee plant.
Sequentia, based in Strongs-ville, Ohio, is owned by New York investment firm Kenner Group. Kenner bought the company in December 1995 from a management group that in 1982 acquired the Reinforced Plastics Division of Reichhold Chemicals Inc. A few years after the management-led buyout, the company expanded fiber-reinforced plastic panel sales into construction markets formerly dominated by metal, such as corrugated panels and wide, seamless panels for lining truck trailers and railroad cars.
The consolidation, announced in October, will allow Sequentia to upgrade manufacturing, research and development and marketing.
``This newest expansion will produce a number of manufacturing efficiencies and help us to better serve our core customer bases in the home center, transportation and metal building markets,'' John Doherty Sr., president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.
In January, Sequentia will begin construction on an addition to the Grand Junction plant. Warner said the building should be completed by August. At that time, the Missouri factory will be closed and the work moved to Tennessee, he said.
An undisclosed number of machines will be transferred from Missouri to the Tennessee plant, Warner said in a Nov. 4 telephone interview.
Warner said Sequentia expects to hire 65-75 additional employees in Tennessee in 1997. Another 100 employees should be added by the year 2000.
Sequentia's third factory, in Houston, also will be upgraded.
Sequentia makes the panels in a continuous process. Glass fibers are chopped and dropped onto a mixture of resins, which is sandwiched between two sheets of PET film and cured in a long oven. The carrier film then is stripped away and the hardened panels cut to size.
The company runs warehouses in Houston; Lawrenceville, Ga.; Middleburg Heights, Ohio; and Kent, Wash. It has eight sales offices across the United States.
