SOUTH BEND — Since Ted Clark and a group of investors bought Royal Adhesives and Sealants in 2003, they have invested about $10 million in the business while continuing to make South Bend its home base.

Another step in that direction was achieved Monday with the completion of the relocation of Royal Adhesives and Sealants epoxy and urethane adhesive product line to its newly expanded South Bend manufacturing and research center.

The expansion has added nine jobs, with another 12 production, technical and administrative positions to be filled over the next year.
Currently, the company employs 159 people in South Bend.

The new staff will support the production of the company’s high performance epoxy and urethane adhesives and electrical encapsulants business.
“The completion of this project is a major milestone for the company,” said Clark, chief executive officer. “By consolidating all of our adhesives production into a single, state-of-the-art plant, we are positioned to be much more efficient and competitive.

“Further, South Bend is a great location for us because we can ship more economically to our customers located throughout the United States and Canada, and it provides attractive investment credit incentives to build our business into the future.”

In a phone interview, Clark cited the efficiency of Indiana government.

“Indiana, on all levels of government, has been pretty efficient at processing things, which has been nice,” said Clark, a Californian. “Not so much that the requirements are any different or any less for any environmental, but they seem to be interested in working with people in getting things done pretty quickly. So that’s been pretty helpful.”

In 2009, two tax abatements were approved for the company.

However, since the announcement of its relocation plans in February of 2009, Royal has spent more than $4.3 million on the expansion of the South Bend site with the addition of an 8,300-square-foot manufacturing area, a 5,100-square-foot product development lab and a 22,500-square-foot warehouse.

The company is located at 2001 W. Washington St., South Bend.

The project was completed in less than 14 months, from the time of the initial corporate decision to full production, according to the company’s release. The move Monday was the last step that began four years ago with the company’s purchase of Hardman Adhesives and Elastomers in Belleville, N.J.

Epoxy urethane adhesives are used to bond body parts of cars or aircraft.

The company, which also has smaller plants in Kansas and California, currently does about $100 million in sales, about $85 million from South Bend.

“Our intent, with what we have invested in South Bend, we have the capacity to grow that business to $150 million without any additional buildings or investments,” Clark said.

The future as far as Royal Adhesives and South Bend go, is on solid ground.

“We are pretty committed to South Bend,” Clark said. “The business itself was well invested in (when his group purchased it in 2003) and for the products we were making, it was a good low-cost producer with a good work force, good facilities, good labs and located in the middle of the country.”

Staff writer Jim Meenan:
jmeenan@sbtinfo.com
(574) 235-6342

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