Fiberglass door maker Therma-Tru Corp. of Maumee, Ohio, will add compression molding capacity to its Roland, Okla., plant.
Hal Gardner, Therma-Tru's vice president of marketing, discussed the move during the 2006 International Builders' Show in Orlando, held Jan. 11-14.
``We do have a strategy for ensuring that we have a reasonable and steady supply of product in the market and that we're not single-facility based any further,'' Gardner said.
The move means that through 2006 and 2007, Therma-Tru will replicate the compression molding capability that it has in Butler, Ind.
``We're purchasing additional presses to put out there; that serves both the expansion of our business as we go into the home-center channel and as we look at other repair and remodel opportunities,'' Gardner said. ``Plus it makes good sense that if any sort of natural catastrophe would hit Butler, we don't want to be offline.''
Gardner said the amount of job growth is to be determined.
Despite a slow start to 2005, Gardner said the company ended the year on a high note.
``It started out very weak,'' he said. ``As a matter of fact, at the end of the first quarter, we were taking a really hard look at our plans for the rest of the year.
``We were trying to just do a check on our key initiatives, see if they still made sense. And do a diagnostic on why, on the wholesale side of our business, things were so sluggish. We figured it out. 2005 was our 14th consecutive year for record sales and profits. It also was the eighth consecutive year we maintained our No. 1 brand position.''