Clopay Corp. is moving to a new headquarters and technical center that will serve as a showplace for the company's film capabilities.
This month Clopay will move both its plastic products and building products groups to a new headquarters in Mason, Ohio, said Gary Abyad, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Clopay Plastic Products Co.
The groups had operated nearby at Clopay's offices in downtown Cincinnati and at several other facilities, Abyad said. Now their staffs will be consolidated at one site.
``Getting all people in one place will create better interaction and a system-marketing and product-development focus,'' he said.
The new, 125,000-square-foot building will devote more than half its space to a larger, film-focused technical center with new equipment and better capabilities, Abyad said. Clopay, owned by publicly held Griffon Corp. of Jericho, N.Y., makes disposable diapers, single-use surgical gowns and drapes, and other laminated, breathable, personal- and health-care film products.
The company will install a new pilot cast film line at the center, Abyad said. The 48-inch coextrusion line is a modular unit that includes inserts for use with a variety of products.
The company also will move a modular pilot line for secondary processes from its current technical center in Sharonville, Ohio. That facility will close in September once the new equipment is installed in Mason.
``It gives us more space and more capability to develop products faster and at lower cost,'' Abyad said. ``We're expecting that the new pilot line will get us further down the path of commercialization before we get to manufacturing.''
Even in the face of an economic downturn, Clopay has recorded sales growth. For the previous fiscal year, the plastic products group recorded sales of $297 million, about 20 percent higher than in 2000. The company expects another good year in 2002, Abyad said.