Charter Plastics Inc. has bought an old foundry in its hometown of Titusville, Pa., and plans to spend $10 million on improvements and expansion to the building. The company, which extrudes medium and high density polyethylene pipe, will complete the renovations during the next five years, ultimately hiring 100 workers, said Donna Stoughton, Charter's director of sales and marketing.
Charter will continue to produce pipe for the water, gas, geothermal and irrigation markets at its facilities. The five-year plan eventually will double the company's capacity, she said.
The former Frontier Foundry Co., which opened in 1994, manufactured ferrous and non-ferrous mill and auxiliary equipment. It closed several weeks ago.
For Charter, the timing was perfect.
"We had been searching for the last two years for a second facility. We wanted to be in Titusville but there was nothing available," Stoughton said.
In fact, there was nothing suitable in the northwestern Pennsylvania area, so Charter began looking in other states such as Kentucky and Louisiana, she said.
"When this came up it was perfect because it was right across the street," Stoughton said.
It will still be several months before Charter can move into its facility. Frontier still needs to remove some equipment before Charter can begin transforming the 100,000-square-foot plant, Stoughton said.
Following a general cleanup of the grounds and plumbing upgrades, Charter will install an undetermined amount of extruders through 2005, she said.
Charter Plastics had 1999 sales of an estimated $15 million. The company currently resides in a 100,000-square-foot plant and runs 15 extruders.
