By Brad Dawson, UT Akron BureauTooele, Utah-Carlisle SynTec plans to open a facility for making insulation products based on polyisocyanurate (PIR) foam in Terrell, Texas, giving the firm its first entry into the Southwest with these products. The firm, a subsidiary of Carlisle Companies Inc. headquartered in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, also plans to build a thermoplastic olefin roofing membrane facility in Tooele, outside Salt Lake City, Utah, by the summer of 2005 to help meet growing demand.Carlisle did not disclose its projected investment for either plant."We are very excited about the opportunity to grow internally through expansion of our construction materials and commercial roofing business," said Richmond McKinnish, Carlisle president and chief executive officer, in a news release. "Construction materials has been a significant growth platform for Carlisle for many years. The allocation of capital for the construction of these facilities shows again how committed we are to this market," his statement added.The Terrell plant, to be operated by Carlisle's Hunter Panels division, headquartered in Portland, Maine, will be the firm's fourth PIR products factory. Its other units are in Kingston, New York, Franklin Park, near Chicago, Illinois, and Lake City, Florida, the last of which opened in May this year.Groundbreaking for the Tooele facility will take place in September, according to Mari Killian, advertising manager; it will be on a 20 440-m2 site and will employ about 70, she added. The plant will be the company's second TPO membrane facility. The firm's existing plant-in Senatobia, Missouri-opened in 1998 and a second production line was added there in 2001, said Ron Head, sales and marketing manager for Carlisle Thermoplastics Group.Demand for the TPO roofing and polyisocyanurate insulation products has increased in recent years, Carlisle said. Net sales last year for the firm's construction materials segment-which encompasses both sets of products-increased 18.7 percent to $579.4 million (€470 million), driven primarily by increased domestic sales of TPO and EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) roofing and residential roofing tile products, according to the company's annual report.Most recently, in the second quarter of 2004, the segment's net sales rose 21.4 percent from a year earlier to $187.5 million. North American commercial roofing sales accounted for about two-thirds of the net sales increase, the company said.Carlisle is a diversified global manufacturing company serving the construction materials, commercial roofing, speciality tyre and wheel, power transmission, heavy-duty brake and friction, food service, data transmission, process systems and automotive industries."
