Uzin-Utz AG, the parent company of UFloor Systems, recently announced the decision to build their initial U.S. dry mortar plant in Dover, Delaware in a new 53,000 square foot facility located on approximately 11 acres in the Garrison Oak Technical Park. The decision was made after an exhaustive search in seven U.S. states. "We selected Dover because of its central location to both our sales markets and its proximity to quality raw material suppliers", said Philipp Utz, president of Uzin Utz Manufacturing North America Inc. "One other key consideration was access to Dover's highly skilled and diversified labor force which we need to manufacture premium quality products locally in the U.S."
The new plant will also be home to an R&D center and an applications area for testing and customer training. The company will invest a total of $9.5 million dollars for this new production plant that will manufacture floor self-leveling and patching compounds already available in the U.S. but which are currently imported from Germany. 15 employees will be hired ahead of the plant's initial production start in early 2015, with an additional eight jobs created by the end of 2018.
Three new chemical engineers will focus their R&D efforts on tailoring products and floor installation systems specific to the North American market and will work closely with the U.S.-based product development team located at their UFloor Systems subsidiary in Aurora, CO. With the new manufacturing plant, Uzin-Utz strengthens its presence in the U.S. and will be even more responsive to changing customer demands in the future. Currently, Uzin-Utz Manufacturing is in the site plan approval process, which will be issued in mid-November by the City Planning Commission of Dover. Construction is scheduled to begin in March, 2014.
