Sekisui Polymer Innovations opens 3rd manufacturing facility

Ronn Cort, COO & president of Sekisui SPI, and Teiji Koge, president of Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., with new extrusion line in the background.

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania – Sekisui Polymer Innovations LLC (SPI) has officially opened its third manufacturing facility. The select group who attended the ceremony and plant tour of South Campus in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, included executives from SPI’s parent company, Sekisui Chemical Co., representatives from the State of Pennsylvania’s Department of Economic and Community Development – including Secretary Dennis Davin – local government officials, key suppliers to the company, and employees.

Although the thermoplastics manufacturing company purchased the 365,000ft² facility last year, it recently commissioned the site’s first extrusion line, which is specifically configured to produce Kydex thermoplastics sheet materials used in the aviation interiors market.

The business expansion is a pivotal component of SPI’s success. Moreover, it signifies the first step in a multi-year journey of continuous investment in manufacturing in Pennsylvania. As Ronn Cort, SPI COO & president, explained in his opening remarks, “Our parent company Sekisui Chemical Co., is intentionally investing in the U.S. Strengthening our position in Pennsylvania is a direct reflection of our confidence in the North American plastics manufacturing renaissance and our commitment to create careers in manufacturing in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, and Holland, Michigan.”

In 2015, Sekisui invested $15 million in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. That investment will continue in all three of SPI’s facilities. South Campus is the new North American corporate headquarters of Sekisui Chemical’s global sheet business that includes businesses in Pennsylvania and Michigan. 

Cort said, “The addition of this extrusion line has created 25 highly skilled jobs. Additional jobs will be created as we add more extrusion lines and production resources and expand our customer collaboration center including our designLab and FSTLab.”

The Bloomsburg and Holland facilities are designated Zero Emissions (which is zero waste to landfill as defined by Sekisui Chemical’s program). South Campus will also undergo certification as a Zero Emissions facility. 

SPI has been providing careers in manufacturing in Bloomsburg since it opened its plant in 1990. In 1962, Sekisui Chemical Co. was the first Japanese manufacturer to establish operations in North America – prior to Toyota or Honda and before Sony came to the United States. In 1963, it opened its first plant in America, in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, just 25 miles from SPI’s present-day Bloomsburg headquarters. The new facility on 56 acres in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, is located two miles from company headquarters. In 2014, Kydex LLC in Bloomsburg and Allen Extruders LLC in Holland, Michigan were combined to form Sekisui SPI.

Source: Sekisui SPI