SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—Norres North America Inc. continued to make strides in 2020 in spite of the pandemic, notching overall sales growth for the fifth year in a row.
The flexible industrial hose maker based in South Bend, Ind., has plans to continue that upward trend as demand skyrockets in many of the industries Norres serves, including food and pharmaceutical, automotive, agricultural, exhaust gas, conveyance and wood processing, among many others.
"The future is very bright for us as a company," said Mark Bobonick, director of sales and operations for North America, at this summer's NAHAD Conference in Scottsdale. "We stood the test of the pandemic and we still saw growth.
"We are back to and even exceeding 2017-2018 sales levels right now."
A subsidiary of Gelsenkirchen, Germany-based Norres Schlauchtechnik, Norres N.A. was established in 2014 after the firm purchased a 30,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing plant and warehouse that sits on nearly four acres in the heart of the Midwest.
"We are centrally located, very much aware of the proximity of our customers, many of whom are in the Northeast region of the country," Bobonick said.
In mid-2015, in a 15,000-sq.-ft. refurbished section of the site, the firm started producing hose for sale in the U.S., Canadian and Mexican markets. And in the first quarter of next year, the hose maker plans to add between 18,000 and 30,000 square feet to the South Bend campus with a new facility, for a total of well over 50,000 square feet.
Between 12 and 15 employees will be added with the expansion, mostly in sales, bringing the N.A. faction to more than 30 employees overall—an impressive staff, considering the company's humble beginnings with only several employees when it began in 2014.
With a strong, 60-plus year legacy of manufacturing in Germany, Norres also boasts sites in the United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, Poland, China, Italy, Sweden and Taiwan. Norres set up a production plant in the U.S. because "we wanted to take what we have established at our other subsidiaries and transfer our expertise across the North American market," Bobonick said.