Elastec/American Marine opens new Fairfield facility | Business

CEO Donnie Wilson of Elastec/American Marine announced today the completion of a new manufacturing facility in Fairfield, Ill.

An open house is taking place today, with tours open to the public from 1 to 3 p.m. A ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening.

“We are grateful for the vision and support of the Fairfield City Council, Mayor Mickey Borah and Susan Murphy, executive director of the Fairfield & Wayne County Area Development Commission, in facilitating the company’s expansion into Fairfield,” said Wilson.

“Elastec/American Marine has been warmly welcomed by the residents and businesses of Fairfield, and we plan to be a supportive corporate citizen in Wayne County.”

Located at 211 N. Market St. in Fairfield, the plant is the fourth location for the pollution control equipment manufacturer. Corporate headquarters and a fabrication plant are located in Carmi with an additional facility in Cocoa, Fla.

Greg Cassell, vice president of operations, Boom Division, is responsible for managing the Fairfield and Cocoa locations.

“The Fairfield complex specializes in the assembly of vinyl, urethane and rubber boom for the containment and control of oil, industrial and construction pollutants on water,” said Cassell. “We manufacture conventional foam-filled boom; pneumatic flotation boom; Hydro-Fire® Boom and American Fireboom for the controlled burning of oil; portable storage tanks for oil collection; and custom tarps to cover auxiliary oil spill equipment.

“Some of the sealing technologies we use are dielectric or Radio Frequency welding, hot air seaming and the vulcanization of rubber,” Cassell explained. “The production of these ‘higher engineered’ products was relocated to Fairfield from the Florida facility in 2011.

“The talented and dependable workforce in Fairfield and Wayne County is contributing to the growth of the local community and to Elastec/American Marine,” Cassell added. “An example of this work ethic was evident in an order we recently completed for the United States Coast Guard for 43,000 feet of oil containment boom. At our Fairfield facility, with improved technologies and a great team of employees, we produced and shipped the order in less than six months.”

Elastec/American Marine entered into a four–year lease/purchase agreement with the City of Fairfield to acquire the formerly vacant Wal-Mart building in December 2010. Since then, Elastec/American Marine has maintained a minimum of 30 employees at the plant, and the majority of these are from Wayne County. Five Cocoa, Fla. employees relocated to Fairfield, and some have purchased homes in the community.

CFO Jeff Bohleber commented on the positive economic impact the plant has generated in Fairfield and Wayne County. “Not only is Elastec/American Marine providing full-benefit jobs to the community as well as tax revenue, we have invested almost three-quarters of a million dollars in renovations to the building.

“We contracted with Clark Construction, a Fairfield-based business, to provide the reconstruction services. Kincaid’s, Ray’s Mowing & Backhoe and numerous Wayne County businesses have also been instrumental in the restoration of the building to accommodate our manufacturing processes,” Bohleber added.

Entrepreneurs Jeff Cantrell, president of Elastec/American Marine, and Wilson started the company in 1990 based on an idea for a better oil skimmer. The innovators designed and manufactured their own invention, the drum skimmer, and the rest is history.

Today, Elastec/American Marine is the largest manufacturer of oil spill equipment in North America, and possibly the world. With over 140 employees, pollution control equipment as diverse as skimmers, boom, incinerators and workboats is distributed in 145 countries through a global dealer network and company sales staff.

In 2010, Wilson managed the controlled burn operation for BP America during the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Elastec/American Marine’s Hydro-Fire® Boom and American Fireboom systems, which are manufactured at the Fairfield plant, outperformed all other fire booms in the Gulf.

In 2011, Elastec/American Marine won the $1 million first place prize in the X PRIZE Foundation’s Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE with yet another innovation, a patented grooved disc oil skimmer. The mechanical device collected 4,670 gallons of oil per minute, over three times the industry standard, with an 89.5% oil-to-water efficiency. Over 350 entries were submitted from around the world. A commercial version of the skimmer, the X150, was introduced at Interspill 2012, an industry trade show, in London, UK, in March 2012.

Elastec/American Marine continues to grow and to seek qualified applicants for administrative and production positions. Manufacturing jobs are the backbone of the United States economy and typically offer higher wages and benefits due to the advanced production skills required. CNN Money recently visited Elastec/American Marine in Fairfield and Carmi and will feature the company and other USA manufacturers on www.money.cnn.com in the near future.

For more information on the Fairfield Open House and Elastec/American Marine, visit www.elastec.com.