Nordson Corp, the Westlake, Ohio-based industrial company that bought Xaloy in 2012, announced Sept. 16 that it is moving all screw and barrel production into a single 200,000-square-foot manufacturing building in Austintown, Ohio, near Youngstown.
Nordson will relocate screw and barrel production from Youngstown and nearby New Castle, Pa., and barrel production from Pulaski, Va., into the leased Austintown building. The move, over the next 18 months, will include a major investment in equipment for building bi-metallic barrels and machining systems, Nordson officials said.
James Jaye, Nordson's senior director of communications and investor relations, said it's too early to give investment dollar amounts.
“It's a significant investment in upgrading and expanding our capabilities,” he said.
Nordson expects to employ about 260 people in Austintown. Company officials announced the news to employees in the three locations the morning of Sept. 16, before issuing the public announcement.
Jaye said Nordson picked a location for what the company is calling a center of excellence in the Youngstown area because the region is a center of screws and barrels. He said the 260-employee tally for the new location equals the majority of the jobs at all three of its existing factories.
“Most of the jobs are moving there [from existing plants]. It's not so much about headcount but really about adding capabilities and making an investment,” Jaye said.
“We looked at locations all over the U.S., but when we did all our due diligence” the company picked the Youngstown area, Jaye said. “We've got a strong workforce at both New Castle and Youngstown so we wanted to preserve that. So it made a lot of sense to stay there.
Xaloy purchased New Castle Industries in 2003, then, six years later, it bought Spirex in Youngstown — making Xaloy the world's largest maker of screws and barrels. Nordson bought Xaloy in 2012.
Kelly Harings, global manager of marketing communications for Nordson's polymer group, noted that the company runs similar regional hubs, in single locations, in Thailand to cover Asia and in Germany to cover Europe.
That gives Nordson global reach, Jaye said.
“In our view, there's nobody else in the industry that has the capability and global centers of excellence,” he said.
Nordson will highlight that global reach at the upcoming K 2016 show in Düsseldorf, Germany.
