Maryville, Tenn. – Microtherm, Inc., a subsidiary of the Etex Group headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, announced today that it is moving into the Blount Partnership spec building located at 1731 Fred Lawson Drive in Partnership Park South in Maryville, Tenn.
“Congratulations to Microtherm on this announcement, and thank you for your investment in our state. I couldn’t be more pleased with the levels of capital investment we are seeing flow into Tennessee right now,” Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty said. “It is especially gratifying for our state to be selected by a global company like the Etex Group for the site of their new Microtherm operations and speaks highly of our state’s business-friendly climate and educated workforce.”
Operating within Etex’s Promat International business group, Microtherm manufactures a specialty insulation known worldwide as the most efficient insulation for high temperature processes. Microtherm is used to save energy, control heat and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in petrochemical plants, molten metal processing and power generation systems including fuel cells, solar, nuclear and traditional fuels.
In addition to producing the Microtherm products it also handles the U.S. distribution of Promat products which are used as fire protection for marine, tunnel and building construction. Microtherm is also used in Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIP) for refrigeration and building insulation.
Microtherm anticipates employing a workforce of least 40 by the end of 2014 including a dozen office positions with the balance being machine operators including some sewing/textile skills, press operators, mixing machines, hand labor and maintenance.
Initial production is slated to begin this summer with more positions added as various equipment and processes are added over the next two years. Microtherm and Promat will initially invest $3 million in 2013 and 2014.
“The decision to locate in Blount County was due to the quality of the spec building the community built, competitive labor rates and the central location to our customers and raw materials,” said Bill Gregg, Microtherm General Manager. “It is also a familiar location to us having been a sister company to Ceramaspeed with its engineering and distribution presence for several years.”
Etex manufactures and sells high-quality building materials and solutions. The Group is present in 44 countries, operates 121 production sites and employs more than 17,000 dedicated people.
The Group’s activities encompass small and large roofing elements, dry construction solutions based on boards in fibre cement and plaster, integrated systems of passive fire protection and high performance insulation and ceramic floor and wall tiles.
“We are excited that Microtherm has made a solid investment in this area and we could provide them a facility to move into,” said Joe Dawson, Chair Blount Partnership Economic Development Board. “As we continue to move forward in our recruitment of new businesses, we can show them that this is a thriving area by the fact that nearly 1800 jobs have been created and there’s been $117 million in capital investment over the past two and a half years.”
“With the Partnership having a move-in ready building; it really helped seal the deal,” said Ed Mitchell, Blount County Mayor. “We have to make Blount County attractive to outside companies and having sites ready to move into or build make it easier to recruit. Microtherm saw the value in it and that’s part of what helped make this venture happen.”
“We are excited to welcome Microtherm to the community,” said Tom Taylor, Maryville Mayor. “These types of investment show that Blount County and our industrial parks are top places to work in East Tennessee.”
More company information is available:
www.microthermgroup.com
www.Promat-international.com
www.etexgroup.com