Fiberglass Tech Spurs Expansion

Comfort Line, Ltd., a Toledo-based composites business that uses new fiberglass technology in its operations, has begun a $10 million project to upgrade its production capabilities at its 232,000 square foot facility. The company. founded in 1966, pultrudes close- tolerance complex lineal profiles that are used as structural members for windows, doors, and sunrooms.

"[The project] is already in motion," stated Jeff Miller, Comfort Line president. "We are a niche player in fiberglass and a niche player in pultrusion. We make complex, thinwall, close tolerance profiles to use for fenestration frame material on windows and doors... The competition - wood frames, aluminum frames, and PVC frames - all have their challenges. What we do answers those challenges. We have developed proprietary technology in pultrusion that we think is going to bring fiberglass fenestration into the mainstream."

According to Miller, Comfort Line has developed a new product, an industry-first fiberglass sunroom, in collaboration with Owens Coming (OC). OC is marketing the product under the trade name, SunSuites Sunrooms, which it is selling through its franchising division. Miller explained that OC's franchising division began in basement systems and is now expanding into the sunroom business. Comfort Line will pultrude the FRP lineal profiles and fabricate sunrooms into custom, pre-fabricated kits.

''That's a very promising venue for us," he explained. "This is something that took us about two years to design."

According to Rob Enos, business manager for SunSuites, the product is the first all fiberglass sunroom and most structurally sound sunroom on the market. He explained that, as opposed to vinyl and aluminum products that are extruded, the fiberglass is pultruded.

"Comfort Line is a pultruder and a manufacturer of windows," Enos stated. "[The pultrusion process] is arguably the best process out there. Comfort Line uses our fiberglass rovings to make windows, and that is how the idea came along for the fiberglass sunroom. It is manufacturing the product for Owens Corning, using Owens Corning products."

Comfort Line has been selling the fiberglass product on a pilot basis with a few franchisees since July 2006. According to Miller, the product has shown success so far, and he is optimistic about its future.

Ohio was in competition with Michigan for the project, but local tax incentives enticed Miller to remain at his northwest Ohio location. The company received a 30% tax credit for a five-year term, estimated at approximately $41,640. The company is required to maintain operations at the project site for ten years.

As part of the $10 million project, Comfort Line is purchasing new equipment for use in fabrication and pultrusion in order to handle the increasing volume of business.

Miller projects that, by the end of 2007, approximately 40 new employees will be hired in addition to the ten personnel currently operating the pilot program.

Although no building construction will take place, Miller explained that many local contractors will be hired to work on hydraulic revisions. "A lot of our tooling for pultrusion is made by local contractors," he stated.

Miller expects a 50% to 100% increase in Comfort Line sales if all goes according to plan.

"It's a local success story on two levels," Miller stated. "Both for us and for Owens Corning."

Comfort Line has manufactured windows since 1959. It has built a relationship with several organizations that develop performance specifications for the window and door industry, including Owens Corning, PPG. SherwinWilliams, and Schlegel. Comfort Line developed its first market-ready FiberframeTM patio door over a decade ago.

Copyright Telex Communications, Inc. Mar 01, 2007

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