17 June 1999: Owens Corning is reopening its fibre glass insulation factory in Candiac, Quebec, with government aid, in order to meet rising North American demand, spokesman William Hamilton said.
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17 June 1999: Owens Corning is reopening its fibre glass insulation factory in Candiac, Quebec, with government aid, in order to meet rising North American demand, spokesman William Hamilton said. The reopening of the plant, which closed in April 1998, “reflects a change in strategy at Owens Corning,” said David Brown, president of the company“s Insulating Systems Business. The company said it planned to resume production at the plant near Montreal later this month. “Instead of operating separate businesses in the US and Canada, we have developed a comprehensive business plan for North America. As part of this plan, Candiac will make light density insulation products for Canada.” Brown said that equipment is currently being installed at Toronto and Edmonton, which will give both plants flexibility to produce US and Canadian insulation products. “This new configuration will allow Toronto and Edmonton to export products to the US, in addition to continuing to serve the needs of our Canadian customers. These changes will give us better flexibility to serve the entire North American market.” The Quebec government would invest C$ 2.2 million to restart the plant, while Canada Jobs Funds would contribute C$ 1 million to the effort, Owens Corning said. In addition, Fonds de Solidarite des Travailleurs du Quebec (FTQ) was making a C$ 7.5 million investment. “When we closed the facility,” Brown said, “it was the highest-cost manufacturing plant in our network of twelve North American fibre glass insulation plants”. “Working together with our employees, union officials and representatives of the provincial and federal government, we are making changes at this plant that can make it competitive with the industry“s best plants anywhere.” To hold down costs, Hamilton said, the company was making operational changes, which included longer production runs of fewer products. “We will focus on the most popular products,” he noted. The company said it planned to operate one of two production lines at the Candiac plant initially. The second line would be held as low-cost standby capacity that could be brought up as required by North American demand.