Schenectady, N.Y. – Schenectady County’s economic development team today announced that Techfibers Inc. will locate its US headquarters, manufacturing center of excellence, product development center and sales and marketing operation to 679 Mariaville Road in the Town of Rotterdam.  The company will make an initial investment of $3 million and create more than 30 new jobs in Schenectady County to serve customers in North America from the new location.

Techfibers Inc is wholly-owned by James Cropper PLC based in England, one of the world’s largest specialty paper manufacturers.  James Cropper PLC announced the new corporate investment in Rotterdam, NY to the London Stock Exchange where the company is publicly traded.  James Cropper was established in 1845 and the company has a nearly 170 year track record of innovation in specialty papers and advanced materials.

George Quayle, Director of James Cropper PLC responsible for its advanced materials interests said, “We have been especially impressed with Schenectady County’s business friendly initiatives and New York State’s commitment to develop a world class technology center in the region.  This together with the possibilities that the former V-Stream property located at 679 Mariaville Road in Rotterdam potentially has for our business expansion plans made choosing this site an easy decision. We believe that the region’s technology base, both industrial and educational, provide possible business synergies as well as a population to draw talent from. Further, the Upstate NY region is also known for its papermaking companies and these skills will be very useful when the time comes for us to setup and run our technical paper line.  We thank Metroplex for their assistance and commitment to Techfibers during this process. It certainly helped cement our decision to choose Schenectady County as our new US base of operations.”

“Schenectady County welcomes Techfibers Inc.,” said Judy Dagostino, Chairwoman of the Schenectady County Legislature.  “They are an international company that could have located this facility anywhere in North America.  This is another in a long list of successes achieved by the County’s economic development team to attract new businesses and jobs to Schenectady County.”

Town Supervisor Harry Buffardi said, “This project means new jobs and new investment in Rotterdam.  We welcome this news and we thank the County and Metroplex for their efforts to work with the Town of Rotterdam to attract this international manufacturing company to our community.”

The Rotterdam facility will house manufacturing operations that are currently based in Cincinnati, Ohio and Stratford, Connecticut.  Both operations will relocate to the Rotterdam site over the next 18 months.

The 52,000 square foot building in Rotterdam leased by Techfibers is located near the interchange of I-88 and I-90 in the Burdeck Street Business Corridor.

Techfibers considered sites in Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and several other states before selecting Schenectady County for its US facility.  The company has signed a ten year lease with a five year option and an option to purchase the building.  CBRE coordinated the site selection process for the company.  The company is expanding rapidly in North America with 500% growth in sales in recent years setting the state for the expansion to Rotterdam.

Electro Fiber Technologies LLC, the main manufacturing subsidiary of Techfibers, builds on the expertise of James Cropper PLC to create metal coated carbon fiber products which offer incredible strength but are light weight.  The company’s products are sold into the automotive, rail, aerospace, marine, electronics, defense, civil engineering, industrial and renewable energy markets. Customers include 3M, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, United Technologies and many others.

The Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority is providing a $100,000 grant toward project costs.

Ray Gillen, Chair of the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority said, “When we learned that this company was considering sites a number of northeastern and midwestern states, we worked very hard to show them why Schenectady County was the top choice for their new consolidated US headquarters, R&D and production facility.  We received excellent cooperation from the Town and with this announcement today we achieve another strategic goal for Rotterdam by bringing a solid manufacturing company into the former VStream building.”

The company has begun renovations to the building and will begin operations shortly.

For more information see www.cropper.com and www.techfibers.com.