John Emerson, plant manager at James Hardie Building Products Inc. in Plant City, displays the new fiber cement pipes that the Australian firm is introducing into the United States. Photo: Tom Berndt

Perhaps not all roads lead to Plant City, but Gov. Jeb Bush's Mobility program, which sets aside $6 billion for road construction throughout Florida over the next 10 years, is good news for the Tampa Bay area in more ways than one. Not only does the program provide funding to improve the local Interstate system on an accelerated time table, it has led to an expansion of a Plant City manufacturer gearing up to supply the pipes for infrastructure necessary in this construction.

James Hardie Building Products Inc., which opened its fiber cement board manufacturing facility in Plant City in 1994, is now building a 70,000-square-foot building to produce fiber cement pipes. This is the first U.S. pipe production facility for the company, which is based in Sydney, Australia. When the $40-million facility opens early next year, it will employ 100 workers and have a production capacity of 3.5-million linear feet.

It wasn't just the Mobility program that lured the building products manufacturer to the U.S. market It was also attracted by the federal government's TEA-21 transport infrastructure program that is budgeted to spend $218 billion over six years for road construction.

"We are very confident that we can create a profitable business in Florida soon after start up," says Peter Macdonald, chief executive officer at James Hardie. "Longer term, this business has the potential to grow into a large, national operation comparable to the U.S. fiber cement business we have today. Even though our pipes and building materials are aimed at different customers, there will be numerous strategic and operating synergies between the two businesses."

When James Hardie began manufacturing fiber cement planks in Plant City six years ago, it started with 65 employees operating in a 165,000-square-foot facility. In 1996, the company installed two additional production lines for that product, doubling the size of the facility to 320,000 square feet and increasing staff to 215 employees. The decision to add production of fiber cement pipes in its Plant City operations results from several advantages cited by the firm's management.

"This area has excellent natural resources," says John Emerson, the firm's plant manager. "The cement plants in Brooksville provide good-quality products, and there's plenty of sand. We import pulp from New Zealand and Chile and use the ports of Tampa and Manatee to bring in that product. We have good access to the ports and freight rates are attractive due to backhaul. More trucks are coming into this area than going out, typically."

The only natural resource that poses a problem at the facility is water.

"It adds operating difficulties for us," Emerson says. "The City of Plant City handles our wastewater and that has been an important issue. Overall, the city government is very good to work with and that's another reason we've continued to expand here."

The company's workforce commutes from a widely dispersed geographic area. "We draw from Lakeland, Brandon, Valrico and Zephyrhills," says Emerson. "From a technical standpoint, we pull nationwide. It's a struggle to get good employees, but we do fairly well. We've found a very good workforce. Our employees work hard and morale is high. We have high expectations of our employees. Those who fit are very good."

International Food Group Inc., which occupies 73,000 square feet in their building at Walden Woods business park, moved to Plant City from Tampa last year. Photo: D.J Wilson

Products manufactured in the fiber cement plank lines are shipped throughout the United States and Canada. "We make a few products in this plant not made elsewhere in the U.S.," Emerson says. The firm has six manufacturing facilities throughout the nation. "We're one of the largest sites and have the capacity to make 300 million square feet of external siding products and Hardie backer board for internal use. Our product has been used in the homes at Disney's town of Celebration [near Orlando]."