Quitman, Ga.-based Utility Plastics LLC, a maker of composite underground box enclosures, will invest $20 million in a new headquarters site in Valdosta, Ga., for corporate offices and a manufacturing operation that will add a product line and 60 new jobs.
Founded in 2020, Utility Plastics makes vaults and underground access points for the power, water and communications markets from proprietary formulations of polyolefins.
The company currently has manufacturing plants in Forest City, N.C., and Boiling Springs, S.C.
Between the two plants and corporate positions, Utility Plastics has 62 employees but that number will soon double.
At its future 100,000-square-foot base, 18 miles away from Quitman in Valdosta, Utility Plastics will house the office staff and create 60 new skilled labor positions, CEO Christopher Corbett said in an email.
"This will be a high-volume facility for a new product line of tier-rated utility enclosures," he said, describing the products as Tier22 enclosures that will come in three sizes.
A Tier22 rating means the product can handle heavy-duty driveway, parking lot and off-roadway applications.
"These boxes are buried in the ground and used for a multitude of apparatuses in the telecommunications, power and water markets," Corbett said. "The demand is created by failing infrastructure and government subsidies to enhance the current utilities."
Private equity firms are pairing with internet service providers to create telecommunications networks as federal money is allocated, driving huge growth in the space, Corbett said.
As for the company's other markets, Corbett said: "The power market is pushing for all power lines to be buried, driving growth in the private sector. Municipal growth is primarily subsidized by the state or federal government and has been for decades. The growth in this market is steady."
The new manufacturing site will process an estimated 23 million pounds of plastics annually, much of it recycled material from sister company AgTech Recycling LLC in Quitman.
"We use 100 percent recycled resins to make all our products. We do not use virgin resins that are extracted from natural gas or crude," Corbett said. "We take post-manufacturing plastic waste and put it back into our products."
Utility Plastics officials also plan to add the company's first film extrusion line in the first quarter of 2025.
"We currently only do injection molding but our team has been in film for years, so this is something we are going to add," Corbett said. "AgTech will be supplying the resin for this project from previously recycled film from the agricultural industry."
About eight months ago, Utility Plastics also "jumped up and out into the above-ground world" with a new line of fiber optic pedestals, which are made from glass-filled polypropylene with interior space for connections.
The Valdosta plant will house an assembly operation for the pedestals, which are now made at the Boiling Springs location, Corbett said.
Utility Plastics' third facility is well underway, he added.
"We have already started the foundations and office space. We plan to be operational in four to five months from today, possibly sooner," Corbett said.
Utility Plastics is customizing a 100,000-square-foot speculative building completed in March by the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority (VLCDA). The site is on 10 acres in the Westside Business Park.
"This move will bring competitive wages and comprehensive benefits to employees in the local community," Corbett said.
Brad Folsom, chairman of the VLCDA, said the board is grateful Utility Plastics decided to expand in Valdosta.
"Providing available sites, including ready-to-use building space, is a key part of the board's responsibility. We anticipated the demand and invested in two spec buildings, creating quality jobs for our community," Folsom said in a VLCDA news release.
Utility Plastics' sister company AgTech also plans to open a second operation in the first quarter of 2025.