Elkhart County officials and Nuway Construction team members flank Reschcor Vice President Jim Reschly, fourth from left, and President Tom Reschly, fourth from right, for a groundbreaking ceremony May 19.

Bristol, Ind.-based custom extruder Reschcor Inc. is building an 83,000-square-foot addition onto its manufacturing plant for new production lines and a larger toolroom as part of a growth plan that also calls for hiring up to 70 more employees over the next five years.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the expansion was set for May 19.

Officials of the privately held company aren't putting a dollar tag on the multimillion-dollar investment they're making at the facility, which was constructed in 2015 and currently stands at about 90,000 square feet.

Reschcor has 20 extrusion lines and 108 employees serving a variety of industries, such as agriculture, appliances, building products, medical, packaging, lawn and garden, and other markets.

But it's not enough processing machinery or personnel, according to President Thomas Reschly.

"Our existing building is maxed and we're looking to add three to four extra extrusion lines a year to support our planned growth," Reschly said in a phone interview about the company's five-year growth strategy.

Founded in 1982 as Omega Plastics, the company is growing with customers, picking up new clients and helping businesses reshore some production, Reschly said.

"The growth has been a really good mix. We're a little bit bigger in electrical than we were, but the bulk of it still has been in building products," he added.

Reschcor extrudes decking accessories, such as railings, and offers coextrusion and triextrusion for windows and doors, including garage doors that are two colors over a substrate.

The pandemic increased demand for decking and railing for outdoor living spaces as well as other residential improvements for home offices and online learning.

"A few accounts reshored some business that was overseas," Reschly said. "They're in building products and luckily we are in a position to take on additional volume for those customers. It's always good to see business coming back to the U.S."

Companies that had moved operations outside of the U.S. to save on labor costs have been dealing with supply chain disruptions related to the pandemic.

"You've got long lead times and variables with freight and container costs," Reschly said. "A lot of companies are taking a harder look at the risks in their supply chain, whereas before it was about low cost. I think the pandemic brought that to light."

Reschcor also is doubling the size of its toolroom and expanding its warehouse to meet customer inventory needs.

"We make all of our tools in-house to support our customers and give them additional confidence that they are getting a high-end tool that will produce millions of feet and that we stand behind that tool," Reschly said.

The decision to take on the expansion project was difficult because of the uncertainty around the pandemic, the president added.

"We've been a bit capacity constrained for the last one and a half to two years. Still, it was hard to pull the trigger on the expansion," Reschly said. "Luckily for us, we were deemed essential due to our work mostly in the ag market and some building products. We operated safely through the pandemic and never had to shut down."

Now the company needs to ramp up.

"Our pipe line is strong," Reschly said. "We have some opportunities in the markets we're in. We see more market share to gain. That's what we do best, so we tend to focus on it."

With estimated sales of $21 million for 2019, Reschcor ranks 99th among North American pipe, profile and tubing extruders, according to Plastics News' latest ranking.

Reschly said last year's sales reached $25 million.

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