Conduit extruder Dura-Line Ltd. is building a 150,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in St. Albert, Alberta, to meet strong regional demand and tap into a skilled labor force as it plans to hire as many as 90 full-time employees in the next nine months.
The Knoxville, Tenn.-based business unit of Orbia Advance Corp. SAB de CV Mexico began construction on the facility in the suburb of Edmonton, where it should be operational by spring 2023.
Founded in 1971, Dura-Line extrudes high density polyethylene conduit with smooth, ribbed and corrugated walls; microducts with outer diameters from 5-22 millimeters; and bundled microducts with an over sheath. The products provide protective pathways for wires and cables that resist extreme temperatures, chemicals and corrosion, and have a bend radius to store on reels and route around or under obstacles.
Dura-Line says it produces more than 500 million meters of essential infrastructure every year for fiber and network technologies.
With an estimated $500 million in sales, Dura-Line ranks No. 10 among North American pipe, profile and tubing extruder, according to Plastics News' latest ranking.
The company has 17 manufacturing facilities employing 1,700 people in the U.S., Canada, India, Oman and Europe as well as a global sales and distribution network.
"Our manufacturing facilities in Ontario, Utah, and Nevada have been doing a phenomenal job in meeting the growing demands of our Western Canada customers, but we felt it was time for Dura-Line to put down roots in Edmonton to serve these customers even better," Dale Wilson, Dura-Line's vice president of sales and marketing in the U.S. and Canada, said in a news release.
Dura-Line said its products help keep the world connected by protecting fiber-optic cables, which are made of very thin strings of glass or plastic, that transmit data for high-speed broadband internet.
"In a world where so many people are dependent on reliable internet connections to communicate with their families, do their jobs, and even receive quality health care, it's exciting to know Dura-Line is helping to create secure, reliable pathways that connect us all," Paul Sartori, Dura-Line's sales director for Canada, said in the release.
Investing in Western Canada makes good business sense and it's the right thing to do, Sartori added.
"Everyone deserves to have a reliable internet connection — regardless of their socioeconomic status," he said.
To bolster its workforce, Dura-Line is promoting an online academy on its website with beginner and intermediate classes about designing, deploying and maintaining networks. The upcoming classes cover microtechnology and installation basics.
Dura-Line is part of Orbia's Connectivity Solutions business group. The other four units are Polymer Solutions (Vestolit and Alphagary), Building and Infrastructure (Wavin), Precision Agriculture (Netafim), and Fluorinated Solutions (Koura) sectors.