Strasburg, Ohio - A multi-million-dollar expansion by Walnut Creek-based building products manufacturer ProVia is expected to create nearly 200 additional jobs in the area over a five-year period.

ProVia’s Director of Corporate Relations, Joe Klink, says company officials are currently finalizing plans to construct a 300,000-square-foot distribution center and vinyl products manufacturing facility near the intersection of routes 21 and 250 in Franklin Township.

Klink explains that the new facility will address the need for additional space at a time of record growth for the company.

“What’s driving the need for this is our tremendous growth in our sales for the products that we build, particularly the vinyl windows that we manufacture,” he says.

ProVia’s windows have traditionally been manufactured at its facility in Sugarcreek. Klink says the Sugarcreek plant will remain in operation once the new facility is completed but will focus strictly on the aluminum products that are also manufactured there.

“That’ll enable us to focus and have more space to develop those product lines as well by pulling the vinyl products out of there. We’re not shutting down the Sugarcreek facility but we’re just refocusing on aluminum products there,” he says.

In addition to housing the company’s vinyl manufacturing operations, the new facility will also serve as the company’s primary distribution center. 

ProVia products are currently distributed out of the company’s facility in Walnut Creek but Klink says the size of that facility is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of the growing company.

“We currently distribute our products out of our Walnut Creek facility, and we have 16 loading docks,” he says. “We’re full. It’s a challenge to pre-stage all of the products for our trucks every day and ship them out on our own trucks.”

In addition, Klink says moving the distribution center into the new building will also free up space to expand the company's entry door manufacturing operation, which is also housed in the Walnut Creek facility.

“Our business just continues to grow, so once that space is freed up, it will be converted into manufacturing space,” he says.

Klink says the company has already secured about 75 acres of farmland on which to build the new facility. He says company officials hope to be able to break ground on the new facility within the next couple of months, with the goal being to have the project completed by the end of 2019 or the beginning of 2020. 

The expansion is expected to create 197 new jobs overall in the company in the first five years.