Niles Expanded Metals expects $750K grant

Staff report

NILES

Niles Expanded Metals & Plastics on North Pleasant Avenue is expected to receive $750,000 from the Ohio Department of Development’s Research and Development Loan Fund.

The company, located next to RMI Titanium, will use the money to help with the purchase of machinery and equipment for a $1 million, high-tech expansion, the ODOD said.

The expansion is expected to create 15 jobs over three years, said Ian Thompson, the company’s operations director.

Niles Expanded Metals develops and manufactures expanded materials, including metal mesh, gratings, walkways, security fences, security and precision foil mesh and accessories.

The company is nearly finished with the 6,000-square-foot expansion of its factory and 1,000-square-foot expansion of its office areas. It also has partitioned the factory into two parts so that the newer work can be done in a cleaner, more high-tech area, Thompson said.

The company expands metals that have a thickness of about a quarter of an inch but will be able to produce metals of a thickness of only 2,000th of an inch or 3,000th of an inch with the new equipment being acquired in the next couple of months. The expansion will be completed by late May.

That will enable the company to expand its work in aeronautical applications, fuel cells and batteries, for example, Thompson said.

The ODOD said the loan was among seven recommended by the Development Financing Advisory Council. The state Controlling Board has final approval, and that is expected to come within several months, Thompson said.

The Development Financing Advisory Council approves low-interest, long-term loans for companies wanting to expand or relocate in Ohio.

“These funds provide established companies with needed capital, allowing them to create new products and supply jobs to Ohioans,” said Mark Kvamme, ODOD director.

Six other loans went to companies in Seneca, Garfield, Licking, Franklin (2) and Hamilton counties. In all, the loans are valued at $7.1 million and leverage an additional $12.9 million in capital investment.

Former Gov. Ted Strickland toured the plant in June, highlighting the company’s growth.

Niles Expanded Metals has been planning an expansion for several years but had to hold off because of the poor economic climate, one of the company’s owners, Bill Phillips Jr., said at the time.

“Now we have gotten, hopefully, over the hump,” Phillips said. “We are looking at a relatively large expansion.”

The company employs about 55 people and plans to add “high-tech, higher-paying” jobs, Phillips said.