James Hardie has led the world in the manufacturing of fiber-cement siding for 125 years. Now the Australia-based business is setting a precedence for its other locations worldwide by revolutionizing Plant City’s factory off Woodrow Wilson Street with new equipment and a sizable expansion.
To say it’s a big expansion is an understatement. The plant is undergoing a $100 million renovation, constructing a 100,000-square-foot addition onto a building that has been repurposed to expand production of trim that is used for doors and windows. After the addition is complete, the plant will have around 450,000 square feet and will be the largest fiber-cement plant in the world, according to Plant Manager Scott Monahan.
Currently, the plant produces 300 million square feet of fiber-cement siding per year. After the expansion, it will be able to produce 650 million square feet per year.
“They’re updating the plant to make it one of their really modern plants … I think it’s going to be really good for Plant City,” said Jesse Carr, of the City of Plant City’s building division.
The physical project started about nine months ago, with permitting being secured last December.
“Our work with the city, with the EPC and permitting, with everything we had to do, it’s gone pretty well,” Monahan said.
So far, there’s been a lot of heavy lifting.
Employees gathered outside the plant last week to watch two 500-pound cranes lift a 130-ton building onto another building.
Equipment from Germany and Italy are busy being assembled by 150 contractors that have swarmed the premise. Before the equipment, contractors worked on clearing out the building the addition is attached to: 100,000 abandoned square feet that was used to make piping until about 2007.
The addition will have new equipment, a blowdown system will be installed to keep steam out of the atmosphere, and one minor feature makes a major impact. Walking through the monstrous warehouse, the addition is much lighter, thanks to rows of LED lights mounted to the ceiling and neighboring skylights.
“There’s a lot of companies that have left, scaled back or cut down,” Human Resource Manager Steve Bonnell said. “This expansion is a good sign of the vitality of the local economy.”
James Hardie came to Plant City in 1994.
“The product performs very well in this environment,” Bonnell said. “We didn’t have anything on the East Coast. There’s a solid workforce, materials, good freight.”
It was the second United States plant, after one in California, and it’s been used as a mecca of distribution for the entire Southeast.
It’s easy to see how operational it’s been since then. Just behind the front offices, through nondescript metal doors, the first warehouse is revealed in a flurry of steam and a musical of hissing clicks and clangs. Giant blenders chop an oatmeal-like pulp that carries an unfamiliar smell — like a mixture of cardboard and soy milk. Through the maze of steel catwalks, operators guide damp sheets of siding as they’re rolled, pressed, wheeled, cut and stacked. Dried pulp that has wafted from its bins covers the railings and containers in a fuzzy brown layer.
In the new addition, the railings are clean, boasting colors and stainless steel. The equipment will be bigger, newer, computer-operated, in part.
“The company feels comfortable with the business climate here in Plant City and Florida,” Bonnell said.
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.