Vinyl window fabricator Shwinco Industries Inc. is quadrupling its capacity with a $2.5 million investment to open a second plant.
The Panama City, Fla.-based outfit bought a 102,000-square-foot former Dolly Madison factory in Dothan, Ala., where it plans to be making windows commercially by the end of 2007's first quarter.
Company officials plan to employ 150 at the facility, which will have seven production lines at capacity. Shwinco, founded in 1989, has about 85 employees working out of its 33,000-square-foot headquarters in Florida.
Vinyl's acceptance as a suitable window material has spurred the company's growth since its inception.
``When we first started, it was not necessarily an accepted product,'' President Craig Shipp said in a recent telephone interview.
Within the past year, Shwinco has begun to penetrate the commercial sector, opening up new revenue streams, Shipp said.
``We're not limited in what we can do. We can go from the residential replacement window, all the way to the largest construction project around.''
The company is growing about 20 percent a year, Shipp said.
Shwinco is focusing on the Southeast. Shipp said Dothan is a good, centrally located place to expand.