Construction will begin this week on a new building at Bedford Reinforced Plastics.

Construction will begin this week on a new building at Bedford Reinforced Plastics.
The 15,000 square-foot structure will house the fabrication portion of the company, allowing the current building to be used for manufacturing. The cost of construction and excavation totals $750,000. The manufacturing building will house the making of the fiberglass products and the new fabrication facility will add the finishing touches like drilling holes for bolts and applying stickers or labels and no-skid materials to the surfaces.
"[The new building] will allow for better flow of work through the fabrication process and free up floor space for more manufacturing," said Mike Beaupre, vice president of operations. The company, which currently employs 169 people, has applied for permits to add three manufacturing lines and has plans to hire 40 additional full-time employees.
Beaupre explained that an increase in sales was the driving force behind
the expansion.
"We're really seeing a continuous growth," he said. "We're backlogged into next year and that's a good indication that things will be good for awhile."
The company estimates fabrication will more than double over the next two years, Beaupre said.
As the company brings more business into the county, BRP will outsource a portion of it to local companies, he explained. These include Structural Fiberglass, MDL Manufacturing, Leister Machine, Bedford Somerset Mental Health/Mental Retardation and Cornell Contracting, Beaupre added.
The original plan for the expansion was to outsource the fabrication process. However, the company decided that in certain markets this would present problems for synchronization of delivery time, so executives decided to build the new structure, Beaupre said.
The most recent change was moving several offices to the Bedford Industrial Park in August, he said. These offices, which are leased for another three years, focus on new business for the company.
In addition to the Bedford location, the company has facilities in Rathdrum, Idaho, and Houston, Texas.
Local resident Ed Oldham of Alum Bank was hired to do the excavation which included leveling the ground four or five feet so it met the existing plant floor.
Diehl Construction of Bedford was hired as contractor for the project.
According to Beaupre, the company also built the other structures so they were familiar with the site.
The materials for the pre-engineered steel building are expected to arrive sometime after mid-September and the company hopes to be using the new facility before Thanksgiving, Beaupre added.
"We are very similar to a steel mill, except we manufacture fiberglass,"
he said.
BRP specializes in fiberglass reinforced plastic which can be made into a variety of shapes and sizes and utilizes in places wood and steel can not.
According to Beaupre, the material is one-fifth the weight of steel and two-thirds the weight of aluminum. It is also corrosion-resistant, electrically non-conductive, and available in flame retardant grades.
The company started selling fences to the agricultural industry in 1974 from a converted barn. In 1983, the company moved to its current location along Reynoldsdale Road in East St. Clair Township. An additional 35,000 square-feet were added to the original 64,000 square-foot structure over several years, and a second 15,000 square-foot building was added in 1996, Beaupre said.

©2006 Bedford Gazette