The door is open to double the jobs at a new plant under construction in Burgettstown, near the Ohio border.
Hörmann Flexon, a huge German door manufacturer, broke ground earlier this month on a 68,000-square-foot facility at Starpointe Business Park. Alice Permigiani, the company's marketing director, says the state-of-the-art plant will open next summer and will eventually employ about 65, up from 30 at Hörmann's Leetsdale plant, which will close. The new plant could eventually grow as large as 220,000 square feet, accommodating a workforce of 100.
Gov. Tom Corbett spoke at the July 9 groundbreaking, along with Washington County Commissioner Lawrence O. Maggi who the Pittsburgh Business Times quoted as noting, “People think we're ground zero here for oil and gas, but we want to be ground zero for manufacturing as well.”
August Hörmann began making steel doors in his metalworking shop in Germany before World War II. Today the company is a fourth-generation family business with operations around the world. In 2007, Hörmann acquired Flexon, a maker of industrial doors and related products in Leetsdale since 1979.
Hörmann Flexon's Pennsylvania operation manufactures high-perfomance industrial and commercial doors, Permigiani says. Last year, the company implemented a new visual management program that has boosted productivity by 30 percent. Earlier this year, the company rolled out four, new, high-speed, roll-up doors designed to meet the needs of specialized industries, including clean rooms, coolers and food processing areas.
Source: Alice Permigiani, Hörmann Flexon
Writer: Elise Vider