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Manufacturer moving Australian operations to S.C. |
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Tuesday, 30 June 2009 |
By Ashley Fletcher Frampton
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ST. STEPHEN -- Albany International Corp., a textiles and materials processing company, has announced plans to transfer operations from a plant in Australia to its St. Stephen facility in Berkeley County.
The move is part of a three-year restructuring process that the company undertook in response to market conditions, said spokeswoman Susan Siegel.
Albany International has 31 plants in 15 countries.
The St. Stephen plant, which the New York-based company built in 1956, manufactures a fabric that is used in paper-making machines. The process and equipment are similar to those at the Gosford, Australia, plant, which manufactures fiber cement fabrics for building products, Siegel said.
“The technologies for making both of these very separate product lines happens to be similar enough that it can be absorbed by the St. Stephen plant,” Siegel said.
The company has facilities in other companies that make the same product as the St. Stephen plant, but the Berkeley County site was Albany International’s choice for this consolidation because of the physical space available and “seasoned employees” who are knowledgeable about the processes, Siegel said.
The St. Stephen plant was the company’s first expansion in the United States outside Albany, New York.
Albany International’s St. Stephen plant employs 258 employees, she said. The Australia plant has 61 employees.
Siegel said it’s too early to tell whether the consolidation, which will take a year to complete, will mean new jobs in Berkeley County.
Published June 30, 2009
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