Xaloy, a maker of components for injection molding and extrusion equipment, is moving manufacturing operations for its twin-screw barrels from Ohio to its former facility in Pulaski County, Virginia. Xaloy had consolidated most of its production at its headquarters in Austintown, Ohio, in 2016, and seven employees had remained in Virginia. The move will keep those employees and add 35 new jobs to the Virginia facility.
Xaloy CEO Kamal Tiwari said the company was reaching capacity in Austintown. “When we decided to reopen the Pulaski site, we turned to former employees to get the facility back in operation,” Tiwari said. “Nearly all 20 of the initial workforce consists of former Pulaski Xaloy workers, bringing with them decades of experience. To have a group of people who could bring this level of knowledge and experience and loyalty to the table was critical.”
In February, Chicago-based Altair Investments purchased Xaloy from Nordson Corp. Andrew Brickman, a partner with Altair, said meeting demand played a role in the decision.
“We do have a backlog that we cannot totally serve at the moment,” Brickman said. “We are trying not to disappoint customers. I think it’s happening a lot in our world today, just because supply chains are messed up, and it is hard to get employees.”
He said the ability to recover many of the highly skilled workers who had previously worked at Pulaski was key to making the move pay off. “As I said to one person, it’s like getting the band back together,” Brickman said. “They know each other, they work together well. And … in a lot of manufacturing processes, that coordination is very important.”
Despite work and jobs moving to Virginia, Brickman said this is not a loss for Ohio.
“These are fairly highly skilled jobs, it takes a long time to climb the learning curve,” Brickman said. “The move gives us the ability to fill them quickly to meet customer needs. So, we are not losing any jobs in Ohio – any people that were working on this line we are hanging on to because we need them in other areas," Brickman said. "As a matter of fact, we’ve got open positions in Ohio we’re still trying to fill.”
While twin-screw barrel production is moving to Virginia, the Austintown facility will still produce front-end components, screws and single-screw barrels. According to a press release from the office of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, Xaloy will invest $1.75 million in the 100,000-square-foot Pulaski facility, which sits on a 30-acre site.
