NEWS - Manufacturing

Evans General Contractors Lands the Construction Work

The Liberty County Development Authority held a press conference last Monday afternoon to announce that Firth Rixson Limited, a global supplier of highly engineered metal rings, industrial forgings and specialized metal products, primarily to aerospace engine manufacturers, will build a new plant in the County’s Tradeport East Business Center.

The company intends to begin hiring human resources personnel immediately for the closed-die manufacturing facility, and when the plant is completed, more than 200 jobs are anticipated, according to Andy Blanda, manager of mergers and acquistions for Firth Rixson.

General manager of the new plant will be Chris Bohlmann, who has been a manager of a  number of the company’s facilities in the United States.

Terming the expansion “the most significant ‘greenfield’ expansion in the company’s history,” the construction of the 200,000-square-foot forging operation will become the company’s fourth closed-die forging facility, said Blanda. 

In announcing the construction of the facility, David C. Mortimer, CEO of Firth Rixson, said, “Firth Rixson Forgings LLC represents the continuation of Firth Rixson’s strategic initiatives and growth plans. Our management and technical development approach consistently results in products that provide satisfaction to our customers and operational results that satisfy our owners. We will leverage the synergy with our current closed-die operations in the United Kingdom to offer our products and service to a broadened market. We are extremely pleased to expand our business in the United States.”

The company is headquartered in Sheffield, United Kingdom, with U.S. headquarters in East Hartford, Conn., and serves customers worldwide in market sectors such as aerospace, defense, power generation, transportation, petrochemical, medical and general industrial sectors.

Firth Rixson owns 11 operating facilities in North America, Europe and Asia, and it recently completed construction of facilities located in Eger, Hungary, and in Suzhou, China, a short distance from Shanghai.

Completion of construction is slated for Oct. 1, 2010, when the company is anticipating occupancy of the building. Evans General Contractors, with offices in Atlanta and Savannah, has been named the general contractor. However, production readiness will not begin until 2012, explained Blanda. 

For most of 2010, the company’s executives will be working from a trailer that belongs to the Liberty County Development Authority, located on Sunbury Road, according to Blanda.

Is the firm a future vendor for Gulfstream and Mitsubishi Power Systems, and was that a reason for choosing the Savannah area? “There’s still a great deal of sensitivity concerning the project,” said Blanda, explaining that the company will not be disclosing who its customer base is, at this point.

But he would confirm that, “We’re not co-locating near a major customer,” he said.  Proximity to a deep-water port and the physical conditions in Liberty County, including the land that was available and the elevation of the land, were key decision factors.

“And, frankly, the attractiveness of the site itself,” said Blanda. “It’s a rather impressive site – that combination of reasons,” he explained. “We’re making a sizable investment here. We gave flood zone and storm boundaries a lot of consideration in selecting the site.”

Blanda added that there were a number of sites in Georgia, as well as in Charleston, S.C., near the Port of Charleston, that were given consideration, as well, but he would not be any more specific about negotiations in Chatham County or with the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA).

He credited the working relationship with the Georgia Dept of Economic Development staff as very positive, as well, and one of the reasons for choosing the Liberty County site. "It was first brought to our attention at a meeting up in Atlanta. The entire deal came together rather quickly."

The company, while British, is owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners, headquartered in New York, a leading private equity firm that owns a number of U.S. companies, including Bell & Howell, and purchased Firth Rixson in November 2007 for $2 billion. 

Oak Hill Capital Partners recently purchased eight Fox television stations in the United States from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, and in 2007 purchased nine stations from the New York Times Company.
Firth Rixson Limited was created by the merger of Firth Rixson plc and Forged Metals in early 2003. The company subsequently acquired Turbine Ring Technologies in the United Kingdom and Schlosser Forge in the United States.

As a result of these endeavors, Firth Rixson has become a forging industry leader that can serve as a "one-stop shop,” according to the company, for original equipment manufacturers anywhere in the world, and it has experienced double-digit growth over its first three years of operation.