Officials at Boston-based Orbia’s Connectivity Solutions business, Dura-Line, are investing in a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the Edmonton suburb of St. Albert, Alberta.
“Not only will this strategic location enable us to meet strong demand in the region, but it allows us to take advantage of the highly skilled labour force in Greater Edmonton,” said Dale Wilson, Dura-Line’s vice-president of sales and marketing in the U.S .and Canada.
Dura-Line, which specializes in developing Internet connection systems, currently ships into Western Canada from plants in Ontario, Utah and Nevada.
“We felt it was time for Dura-Line to put down roots in Edmonton to serve these customers even better,” Wilson said.
Dura-Line has begun retrofitting an existing building to create the 150,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility in St. Albert and has plans to hire as many as 90 full-time employees over the next nine months – with the goal to be fully operational by spring of 2023.
Dura-Line is owned by Orbia, formerly known as Mexichem, which is a mass-producer of polymers, polyvinyl chloride, and a range of other infrastructure-based plastic products. In 2021, Orbia reported a net revenue of $8.8 billion US.
The St. Albert plant will be Dura-Line's second Canadian facility. The other, located in Gravenhurst, Ont., is currently manufacturing all of Dura-Line's products sold in Canada.
The new Alberta facility has been a couple of years in the making, according to Paul Sartori, the director of sales for Dura-Line in Canada.
"We see a significant upside in the Canadian market," Sartori said in an interview. “It’s time that we step up in Canada and do what we do and really leverage that global footprint that we have.”
“If you’re looking at shipping stuff from Ontario across to Alberta, for example, it gets pretty pricey these days with supply chain interruptions and increased cost across the board," said Sartori. "It just made more sense to put a point of presence there and support the local economy of St. Albert.”
To get the leased facility operational, Sartori said the Carnegie Drive building is undergoing significant renovations, which are already underway.
