Dive Brief:
- Building materials and plastic maker Ipex opened its $200 million manufacturing facility in Pineville, North Carolina earlier this month.
- The plant created 150 jobs and is Ipex's largest investment to date, according to the release. The 200,000-square-foot facility includes injection molding machinery that'll help the company save $700,000 a year in operational costs.
- The new plant produce fittings for plumbing, electrical, industrial and municipal applications. It’ll also use energy-efficient lighting and machines to reduce the company’s use of electricity and water.
Dive Insight:
Ipex’s new molding facility is part of the company’s North America growth strategy to better serve its customers, CEO Alex Mestres said in the release.
The Ontario-based manufacturer announced last year that it was expanding three of its U.S.-based facilities by adding 28 production lines, which Mestres said will increase Ipex’s production capacity for its pipe business.
“These investments will also add enough capacity to deliver a number of groundbreaking new products we now have in the pipeline and ready to launch,” Mestres said in a statement last year.
In June, Ipex’s parent company Aliaxis acquired Valencia Pipe Company’s manufacturing division which included a facility in Washington as well as a facility and distribution center in Arizona.
Ipex has been adding warehouses and distribution centers over the last couple of years. In December, the company acquired a distribution facility in Pennsylvania. The company also opened distribution centers in Canada, Texas, Illinois and North Carolina.
