Conforce International prepares for production

Production of composite transportation flooring will begin soon as Conforce International Inc. finishes settling into its first U.S. facility.

EKO-FLOR is a composite flooring system meant to replace hardwood floors in shipping containers, trademarked by Conforce.

“We have made our move and are in the process of getting the building accommodated to meet our manufacturing requirements,” said Marino Kulas, Conforce CEO. “We have the first production line in and additional lines coming in the coming weeks. We anticipate some debugging. … We are not at full scale manufacturing yet. We anticipate that we will start production in a couple of weeks. We’re on a ramp-up schedule.”

The company’s short-term objectives are to get production under way by June and to update and share information with people about the company’s developments. To that end, the company recently had its first meeting in the facility to discuss plans for the future with members of the financial community, customers, equipment suppliers and local politicians.

“We’ve had our first meeting in Peru, involving many folks from areas in Canada, Wall Street, New York, customers, the mayor, Miami County Economic Development Authority ��“ we had all of them in there the same day,” Kulas said. “We’re breathing new life in that board room. … We thought in one fell swoop we would let people know when the head office crew would be in the facility, and it happens that everyone decided to take us up on it. It was very positive.”

Conforce is investing more than $13.8 million to purchase and equip the facility. Around the time the company announced its decision in October 2010, Perry Peralman, Conforce vice president of business development, told the Peru Common Council the company’s plans to expand to Peru depended on acquiring the former Trelleborg building.

Last fall, the Peru Common Council approved two tax abatements for Conforce with the stipulation that they employ 175 people by their third year in Peru.

The company is looking to have 175 to 200 employees in Peru once it hits full production, Kulas said. Toward that end, a job fair took place in late March to take applications, with hundreds of people turning out to seek employment.

“It turned out very well,” Kulas said. “We have hired the key supervisors, and we’re very pleased with the folks that we’ve hired, and believe that there’s a very good work pool to select from. … We look forward to hiring more people that will fill up the capacity. We’re looking to hire local talent and adding more executive staff as well with Conforce, so there’s lots of exciting things going on.

“As a personal note, on behalf of the company I’d like to thank the people of Peru for the warm reception we’ve received in Peru,” he added.