Valley Processing to reopen former Rubatex plant in Va.

BEDFORD, Va.—Rubber will reign again at a former rubber manufacturing plant with more than 200,000 square feet of space.

Valley Processing Inc. announced in mid-June that it is expanding its operations in Virginia by opening a plant in Bedford. It is expected to start with about 30 employees at the site, with the potential to grow to more than 200 employees in a few years, said Steve Sharp, who heads business development for the company.

Valley Processing is a custom mixer of elastomeric compounds and also provides calender service for global clients in such industries as automotive and construction. Annual revenues for the company, head¬quar¬¬tered in City of Industry, Calif., are approaching $50 million, Sharp said.

"This acquisition positions us to serve customers even more effectively in the Southeast, Northeast and Ohio Valley/Midwest," Sharp said. "Valley Processing already has a solid position in varied categories requiring highly engineered, high- performance rubber compounds such as electrical, oil field, under-the-hood automotive, heavy equipment, mining, construction, durable goods and more."

He said the Virginia facility gives the firm a stronger presence in several of these categories.

As part of Gran Tee Investments, Valley Processing purchased the 10 acres of land that houses the former Rubatex facility in June 2012 for nearly $700,000 as part of a bankruptcy transaction. The factory had been stripped of wiring and electric equipment, but the buyers felt the plant and location were ideal for Valley Processing, said Owner and CEO Ted Ballou.

Valley Processing Virginia is running qualifying trials for customers throughout July, and the facility is expected to increase the company's capacity in the eastern U.S.

"With over 10 acres of land and 200,000 square feet of factory space, Valley Processing Virginia is poised and ready to grow for years to come," Ballou said in a statement.

"The facility is actively qualifying compounds for customers as we speak; we have begun shipping, and will ramp up further in July and through the summer," Sharp said.

The new plant will have a significant impact on the Bedford region, a city hit hard by a U.S. manufacturing recession in the early 2000s. The former Rubatex plant was one of the major employers in town, producing a number of pressed and foam rubber products, until it closed in 2004. Sedo Chemicals reopened the facility on a smaller scale before closing in 2010.

During this time, the population of Bedford shrunk by nearly half, forcing local leaders to seek changes that would allow the city to become a town. Valley Processing is hoping to hire as many locals to the facility as possible, with as-needed training and support provided by experienced employees in its California headquarters.

"The bulk of the current Bedford work force is comprised of former Rubatex employees. Ideally, all of our employees in the Virginia facility will be from the local Bedford community," Sharp said.

New jobs created

Valley Processing and Gran Tee Investments worked closely with local and state officials to ensure the new operation would be beneficial to all parties. The new jobs will be for positions such as manufacturing, production scheduling and customer service. Valley Processing also will be hiring for jobs in accounting, lab operations and purchasing.

Gran Tee owns the Bedford facility, and one of its principals is Chet Mitchell, former owner of Mitchell Rubber Products and the parent to Valley Processing.

Local authorities and the state of Virginia have been extremely helpful with the transition, Sharp said.

"City managers visit the plant regularly, help us make contacts with needed support resources, have helped us expedite activities to get started quickly," Sharp said. "They've always made us aware of funding for new employee training, compliance needs, infrastructure-building and support."

One of the challenges in reopening the plant was to find the most efficient way to restore power to the plant and redevelop property that had suffered several years of neglect and inactivity.

Valley Processing has commissioned and started up an internal mixer, with a second one in the process. It has rebuilt, restored and/or refurbished the electrical infrastructure at the plant, and it has painted and refurbished the plant's interior, including flooring and more, Sharp said.

The Bedford plant will complement the high level of service offered by Valley's California operations. It will allow more products to be made in Virginia, thereby opening more capacity in California, which will support further growth, Ballou said.

"As Virginia develops, the partnership between California and Virginia should be a benefit to customers, both facilities and the company as a whole," he added.

Valley Processing's two existing manufacturing plants in California offer medium-to-high volume mixing capacity in black or colored compounds, including strips, slabs, calendered, barwell preforms and extrusions.

Valley hired Chad Robinson as director of sales and technology for the East Region. Robinson, who will be based in Bedford, has almost 27 years of experience in custom rubber compounding and related industries.