Elastron recently announced that it will open a North American headquarters in Gainesville, GA, USA. Headquartered near Istanbul, Turkey, Elastron began expanding into the North American market in 2012. The company said it has seen enough demand to justify a local manufacturing facility. Elastron has been producing TPEs for more than 35 years with exports to over 55 countries worldwide.
The new facility will be approximately 2,800 m² and will include production, a technical laboratory, a warehouse, and offices. The start of the commercial production is scheduled for Q3 2018. In the next two to three years, Elastron USA is expected to create 20 to 25 new jobs, and within the next three to five years, grow to 60 to 80 employees. The company said its initial investment is USD 10 million. It also said it is committed to investing additional amounts as market demand increases and justifies expansion of production capacity. The facility will produce a broad range of TPEs including TPV, TPO, SBS, and SEBS. Elastron USA will serve all major market segments including automotive, industrial, construction, medical, consumer, and electrical. The new facility will enable Elastron USA to provide its North American customers with locally manufactured products, improve its service and supply its European and Chinese customers that have operations in North America with equivalent products.
Market research has clearly identified that US consumers are looking for a supplier with improved customer service, flexibility and willingness to collaborate with customers on development programmes, said Metin Mizrakli, chairman and CEO of Elastron. “We are very excited about expanding our global production capabilities to the North American market,” Mizrakli said. “We are fully committed to supplying our customers with high quality thermoplastic elastomers and an unmatched level of technical support and customer service.” Georgia’s business-friendly environment and economic development efforts to attract investment from Turkey led Elastron’s search to consider Georgia. After an exhaustive site selection process, Elastron USA selected Gainesville for its new North American headquarters.
“It’s an honour when a company chooses to locate its North American headquarters in Georgia,” said Georgia Governor Nathan Deal. “Our pro-business environment has been a magnet for innovative companies for many years. I am thrilled that Elastron will call Gainesville home. Not only is it a win-win for Hall County, but for the entire state.” Gainesville-Hall County is a unique manufacturing environment with more than 300 good-producing firms and 33 % of the workforce employed in these businesses. The community offers access to both top executive and management level talent to run the business as well as the skills for the manufacturing floor, competitive cost of living and doing business, full-time existing industry support programme through the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, and close proximity to a global metropolitan region being less than 50 miles from Atlanta.
The ability to easily serve customers in the North American market for engineering, production, sales and service makes Gainesville-Hall County the ideal location for Elastron USA’s headquarters, said Tim Evans, Vice President of Economic Development for the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce. “Elastron is a family-owned business known for being very customer-focused and for providing great service in the thermoplastics industry,” Evans said. “Elastron USA will be a welcome addition to the growing community of international businesses that have their sales, service, engineering and manufacturing headquarters in Gainesville-Hall County.”