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A Czech producer of plastics used to make pipes and cable has expanded a factory, warehouse and headquarters in Peachtree City, adding 21,000 square feet and one new production line as its business grows in the United States.
Silon AG’s owners, executives and board members joined employees, customers and contractors for a grand opening of a new building, tacked onto the back of the space it entered eight years ago when first landing in the U.S.
For now, the pitched-roof warehouse is populated with cardboard totes filled with plastic pellets set to be shipped off to customers who will melt and extrude the material into water pipes and electrical cable coverings.
Complete with two loading bays, the new warehouse offers 2.5 million more pounds of storage space and boosts the square footage of the 21-acre complex by more than 25 percent.
But Silon meets its sales goals, executives say the cavernous warehouse will be converted into production space, with vertically oriented lines where chemicals and materials offloaded from a connected rail spur are mixed into a hopper, extruded, baked and cut into the end product: pelletized plastics known as compounds.
Silon’s compounds are packed in cardboard totes to be shipped out to customers from the new 21,000 square foot warehouse the company hopes will eventually house new production lines. Credit: Silon
Silon serves all of the Americas only from Georgia, selling to clients in Mexico, Brazil and all over South America. The Peachtree City site is one of a few “independent facilities,” Silon hopes to install around the world to serve particular regions.
“Nowadays, it’s more about localization than globalization,” said Silon global CEO Suchrat Saidov, noting that he doesn’t foresee opening any other facilities in the Americas for compounds. The U.S. plant, he said, is on the verge of being self-sufficient for this region, hitting $30 million in revenues this year with the new space giving it space to grow to $100 million in the future. Silon global revenues stand at some 220 million euros.
Suchrat Saidov, group CEO at SIlon, raises a glass to the company’s success.
“I believe, personally, that the biggest growth in the group this year will be in the U.S., and there are reasons to believe certain orders or new projects are coming here. From that perspective, to have this line and to have this new home is important, because we believe we will be able to sell out the capacity,” Mr. Saidov said.
Already, Silon is four times larger than it was when he started 15 years ago, and recent divestments have led to a greater focus on the core business. The U.S. operation is now moving beyond the customers that pulled the company into the market. Georgia-based wire and cable producer Southwire is a key account.
“We are bullish in general — it’s not only about the U.S.,” he said.
Threatened tariffs on U.S. imports, says Chief Sales Officer Daniel Raubenstein, could end up helping Silon, which sources its virgin petroleum from the Gulf Coast, while competitors sometimes rely on cheaper (and less resilient) inputs from overseas.
Silon’s 20 chemists in the Czech Republic work on custom compound formulations for customers as well as overall research and development. Quality control for Silon U.S. is handled in Peachtree City, with testing equipment on site. Each batch is tested three times before being shipped out. All plastic byproduct from the manufacturing process is recycled.
Customers, partners, community leaders and employees joined in the celebration.
Matt Gammon, the CEO of Silon U.S., thanked the team in his remarks, saying the construction process was challenging, especially while keeping production running on the existing facility.
“We had our ups and downs, but it’s a beautiful building, and we’re thankful for it,” Mr. Gammon said, noting that the warehouse will eventually house three production lines.
That’s the professed goal of executives visiting from the Czech Republic, as well as shareholders represented by Bernhard Heinrich Rustige, the principal owner based out of Hamburg, Germany.
“Hopefully this is not the last time we are meeting here,” Mr. Rustige said in brief remarks.
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