Tetcon Products to Make $6.5 Million Investment and Bring 58 New Jobs to Roanoke County

RICHMOND - Governor Mark R. Warner today announced that Tecton Products LLC, a manufacturer of composite products, will invest $6.5 million to open its first Virginia plant in Roanoke County. The project will initially create 58 new jobs that include machine operators, engineers and technical associates. Virginia successfully competed against North Dakota for the project.

“Tecton’s desire to be close to its target market made Virginia the perfect match,” said Governor Warner. “I came to Roanoke for the Marvin Windows announcement, and I wish I could have been back today for this related announcement. Tecton researched Virginia and found that the skilled workers, economic advantages, and quality of life for its workforce made Roanoke County the obvious choice.”

Headquartered in Fargo, N.D., Tecton Products began in 1990 as a partnership between Marvin Windows and Doors and the company’s president. Tecton’s initial charter was to work with Marvin to develop a high performance window and door product line using pultrusions for the framing components. During Tecton's pultrusion process, glass reinforcements are impregnated with a proprietary liquid resin and pulled through a heated die. The resulting composite profile is strong, thermally stable, insulating and resistant to corrosion, chemicals and moisture. Today Tecton Products has become the world’s largest manufacturer of thin walled complex shaped pultrusions. The plant will be located in the Center for Research and Technology.

Tecton Products selected Virginia for its expansion for several reasons. Tecton’s largest customer, Integrity from Marvin, recently located a new production facility in Roanoke County. “The facility in Virginia puts us in the middle of our East Coast customers and Roanoke is a great community for us,” said John Jambois, President of Tecton Products.

“The nature of our business requires an excellent discipline in engineering and material sciences. We plan on developing partnerships with Virginia Tech, which we believe is critical to our future success,” said Robert Plagemann, General Manager of Tecton Products, Roanoke.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with officials from Roanoke County and the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership to secure the project for Virginia. Governor Warner approved a $100,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist Roanoke County with the project. The Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide training assistance through its Workforce Services Program.

“Tecton’s proprietary manufacturing process represents the type of high tech manufacturing and technical jobs that we envisioned when we created the Center for Research and Technology,” said Roanoke County Administrator Elmer Hodge. “The close proximity to Virginia Tech was instrumental in Tecton’s decision to locate in the CRT. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome such a high-quality, value-added company to our community. When Marvin Windows chose Roanoke County for its East Coast Integrity Windows manufacturing operation, we began to encourage their suppliers to follow. The announcement of Tecton Products, along with the recent Cardinal Glass announcement, validates that Roanoke County is a desirable location for high-tech manufacturing operations.”