WARSAW, Ind.—Flexaust Co. Inc. is adding a 25,000-sq.-ft. expansion that will connect two buildings at its complex in Warsaw, freeing up space for new manufacturing and providing a single spot for finished goods inventory.
The industrial hose and ducting producer is spending about $2.5 million on the project, including another expansion at an adjacent plant, according to Mike Harvey, the firm's vice president general manager.
Flexaust previously had two separate facilities on adjacent property that the expansion will join. The firm has occupied one since the 1970s, and Harvey said one was purchased in the 1990s after Schauenburg Group purchased the firm. An additional 15,000 square feet was added to one of the buildings in 2006, but now the firm is out of space.
"The logical thing was to add on between the buildings," he said. "We had enough room to put 25,000 square feet between the buildings and join the structures."
Flexaust broke ground on the project in May and is in the process of moving into the new space, Harvey said. The company was awarded tax abatement from the state and county governments in exchange for investing $2.5 million and adding 20 jobs over the next three years, he added.
Right now, the hose producer employs close to 200, and Harvey said the additions will push it to about 215. Flexaust employs 255 company-wide.
The first part of the project, which will bring the combined facility to about 240,000 square feet, will be to centralize its finished goods inventory into one location. The inventory had been fragmented throughout three buildings in Warsaw, but Harvey said the addition will allow it to be located in one.