Glunt Industries to re-enter market

WARREN — Glunt Industries is buying $1.9 million in equipment to re-enter a market that it left five years ago.

In 2002, the North River Road company sold its Niles plant to Canton-based Timken. The plant repaired the housings that hold the rolls in rolling mills at steel plants.

The deal included a five-year clause that prohibited Glunt from competing in that market, said Dennis Glunt, company president.

Now that those five years have expired, the company is getting back into the business of repairing those housings.

“We’re going back after a leadership role,” he said.

The new equipment is to arrive at its plant in about six months.

Glunt expects about 25 workers to be added over two years. The company employs 75.

After the sale to Timken, Glunt retained other work involving the repair and rebuilding of equipment for the steel and aluminum industries.

To help with the expansion, Glunt will receive a $280,000 Ohio Small Cities Community Development Block Grant, said state Rep. Sandra Stabile Harwood of Niles, D-65th, and Tom Letson of Warren, D-64th.

The state grant will be used to install 4,100 feet of sewer lines.