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Global roofing manufacturer to invest $363M in Chester County operations

Christina Lee Knauss //February 22, 2023//

Global roofing manufacturer to invest $363M in Chester County operations

Christina Lee Knauss //February 22, 2023//

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A roofing products company headquartered in Canada will invest $363 million in two manufacturing facilities in Chester County.

IKO will establish its first South Carolina operations with two facilities located less than one mile apart along the S.C. 9 industrial corridor in Chester County, according to a news release. The project will create an estimated 180 new jobs.

The company makes a broad range of products for commercial and residential roofing and waterproofing in addition to rigid insulations for roofing and walls, according to company material.

IKO plans to remodel an existing facility on Lancaster Highway to manufacture fiberglass while concurrently building a new 325,000-square-foot manufacturing plant on Cedarhurst Road to produce fiberglass mats for use in production at its U.S. shingle factories, according to the release. They will be IKO’s first wholly owned glass and glass mat facilities in South Carolina.

“IKO is very pleased to be opening its first wholly-owned glass and glass mat facilities in South Carolina,” said IKO’s CEO David Koschitzy. “This is just the latest of many significant investments IKO has made to support a growing U.S. market presence.”

IKO plans to remodel a fiberglass plant at 1497 Lancaster Highway that was previously opened in 1996 by PPG Industries and later purchased in 2017 by Nippon Electric Glass. Nippon shuttered the plant in February 2020, displacing 145 workers.

“PPG and then Nippon were part of our community since 1996, so I was saddened when the plant shut down in 2020,” said Chester County Council Chairman Joe Branham. “We are delighted that IKO selected Chester County to not only reopen the fiberglass production plant but to also build a new mat plant here.”

Founded in Calgary, Alberta in 1951, IKO entered the U.S. marketplace in 1979. The company currently has 3,500 employees at more than 25 manufacturing plants in Canada, the U.S., England, Belgium, Holland, France and Slovakia. The company ships roofing products to 96 countries.

Operations are expected to be online by late 2025. People interested in joining the IKO team should visit the company’s careers page.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved job development credits related to the project.

 

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