DAYTON BUSINESS JOURNAL, Joe Cogliano - A local manufacturer is spending $600,000 to grow one of its businesses.
Harrison Township-based FC Industries Inc. — the parent of four companies, which make a variety of products — is gearing up to build an 1,800-square-foot rebar test lab within its 300,000-square-foot facility on Webster Street. The project will triple the existing lab space for its Barsplice Products Inc. business, which makes a bar system used to reinforce commercial buildings and other structures such as bridges, water treatment plants and power plants.
Additionally, new equipment in the lab will expand its capacity and ability to test bigger pieces of rebar.
Springfield-based C&N Contractors will start construction soon and the job is expected to take about six weeks.
“It takes us to another whole level,” said Mike Casella, president of FC Industries. Casella runs the 315-employee, family-owned company with his sister, Lynn Vaughn, who serves as vice president.
Barsplice, the most profitable of FC Industries’ businesses, has been growing at a steady clip the last few years. This investment is expected to help Barsplice stay at the forefront of the industry as much of the new construction of bridges, condos and parking garages — especially along the coasts, which are more prone to earthquakes and hurricanes — is using larger rebar for safety and durability. That’s also great news for the Dayton region economy, as it means more work will come into town from elsewhere.
Casella tells me Barsplice sales have grown at least 15 percent in each of the last three years and exports are keeping pace with domestic sales. FC Industries has invested several million dollars in new equipment at Barsplice in the two years leading up to this year.
FC Industries as a whole has added more than 50 workers in the last two years.
In addition to Barsplice, the parent company runs:
AFC Stamping & Production Inc., a tubing fabrication business;
AFC Tool Co. Inc., a tool and die shop; and
Dayton Precision Aerospace Inc., a punch and die component maker focused on the aerospace industry.
