(BRK.A), (BRK.B)
With new construction starts continuing to slowly grow, Berkshire Hathaway’s Johns Manville, a manufacturer and marketer of building and specialty products, is adding a second production line at the company’s Scottsboro, Alabama, manufacturing facility.
The new line will increase production capacity for the company’s TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin), a roofing membrane that is used by commercial roofing contractors, consultants and building owners.
The new TPO production line will bring Johns Manville’s total investment in commercial roofing over the past eight years to approximately $200 million.
In October 2008, Johns Manville opened the state-of-the-art TPO facility in Scottsboro. The company furthered its investment in single ply in 2012 with the opening of an EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) manufacturing plant in Milan, Ohio.
To meet recent demand for Johns Manville TPO, the company began a capacity expansion project in March 2015 at the Scottsboro plant. Construction was completed in May, and now work will begin to construct the second production line.
“The plant expansion was a huge success and made our Scottsboro facility what is, in our view, the most productive and efficient TPO facility in the United States, enabling us to meet our customers’ needs for the foreseeable future,” said Jennifer Ford-Smith, Johns Manville’s Director of Marketing and Single Ply. “This new line will give Johns Manville the ability to supply our customers with even more TPO than was previously available.”
About Johns Manville
Acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 2001, Johns Manville has annual sales of approximately $2.6 billion, and employs approximately 7,000 people. The company has 44 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China.
© 2015 David Mazor
Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or individualized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.