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The former glass plant in Lavington will open later than expected, but with beefed-up production
The recent merger of two construction-industry companies will mean a delayed opening for the former glass plant in Lavington, but much bigger things when it is finally up and running.
Late last year, the Molnar family bought the old plant, promising to create hundreds of jobs there when it begins manufacturing a mineral-based alternative to gypsum board.
Now, the end-of-summer opening date Mike Molnar previously promised has been pushed back, after the family’s Constructshield Products Corp. merged with Alberta’s Rethinking Construction.
James Molnar, the director of business development at the newly beefed up Constructshield, says the merger has put the company about three years ahead of its original schedule.
Before being absorbed into the Constructshield brand, Rethinking Construction had achieved special certification from the Canadian Construction Material Centre for its magnesium-oxide board.
That product remains the only one of its kind in the entire country with CCMC certification, and Constructshield will soon begin manufacturing it, along with the complete panelized building system that goes along with it, at the Lavington plant.
As Molnar explains, it would have taken Constructshield years to achieve the CCMC certification on its own, and having a product with it now will speed things up considerably.
“With this whole merger … we’ve basically pushed our manufacturing back a few months … but it’s put us ahead by about three years,” Molnar said.
Before the merger, the plant’s manufacturing capacity would also have been about 40 per cent less than what he’s now projecting.
“It’s definitely huge for us, and for the whole area. We’re really excited about how everything is progressing,” Molnar said.
When the Lavington glass plant shut down in 2008, approximately 300 people lost their jobs. Molnar said resumes have been trickling in since they first announced the plant would reopen, but asked the community for patience as the company works out all the kinks of the new operation.
He points out the plant will be the first site outside of China that manufactures this magnesium-oxide product, so they want to make sure they get everything right.
“We originally said we were planning [to start production in] Q2 to Q3 this year, and I think a lot of people are kind of wondering what’s happening with that. Rest assured, things are moving forward better than we could hope, but it’s kind of a waiting game for now,” he said.
He said there are still a lot of unknowns, but that Constructshield hopes to start production before the end of the year, initially creating somewhere in the ballpark of 100 jobs.
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