Uniroyal Approves $10 million Expansion

Long-range: Tampa plant may triple workforce

Dave Szymanski Editor

Uniroyal Technology Corp. will spend $10 million to expand its Sabal Park plant, an upgrade that will boost production 20 percent and could eventually triple the staff.

The plant, off Interstate 75 in eastern Hillsborough County, currently employs about 50 people.

Workers there create the latest generation of high-brightness light-emitting diodes for the Sarasota-based company, a former corporate sibling of the Uniroyal tire company.

The blue, green, red, orange and yellow lights project a more powerful visual signal than earlier versions. They will be sold for uses such as traffic lights, indoor and outdoor signs, vehicle instrument panels and tail lights for cars and heavy trucks.

They look like miniature light bulbs, but actually, LEDs are tiny pieces of silicon wafer covered with chemicals. An electrical current passes through, giving the light its color.

The high-brightness diode or optoelectronics industry, expected to grow 35 percent annually the next five years, is Uniroyal's top growth vehicle. The industry is only about four years old.

"We believe the marketplace will warrant addition expansion at this facility," said George Zulanas, the chief financial officer. In the next two years, the Sabal Park plant could have 130 to 150 people, Zulanas said.

Longer term, Uniroyal has an option to lease more space at Sabal Park and may expand in other Florida markets, Zulanas said. Its other two Florida plants are in Melbourne and Rockledge, facilities Uniroyal gained through buying ViPlex and Happel, two fabrication companies that make finished products for the marine industry.

The Tampa expansion will include new production equipment and building infrastructure, such as water chillers. Walls won't be coming down, at this point.

"We didn't anticipate the expansion this soon," said Robert Saran, Uniroyal's president and chief operating officer. "This is kind of the first phase of the production out there."

Uniroyal runs 14 plants that make a variety of products, including coated fabrics, high-performance plastics and specialty adhesives.

Naugahyde, a vinyl-covered fabric, is one of the most well-known of Uniroyal's coated-fabric products. Through its high-performance plastics division, Uniroyal makes Royalite thermoplastic products and Polycast acrylic sheets and rods for use in a range of industries, including aviation (windshields) and security (bulletproof shields).

Uniroyal Technology was born after a Connecticut company, Polycast, bought the plastics division of tire-maker Uniroyal Inc. in 1986. Polycast moved the division to Sarasota and renamed it Uniroyal Technology.

Uniroyal Technology estimates that sales for its latest fiscal year, ended in September, were $200 million. That's a decrease from previous years primarily because of corporate consolidation.

The past fiscal year, the company sold off an unprofitable coated fabrics division that served the automotive market.

Light-emitting diodes show promise for the company because they are stronger and use less energy than incandescent light bulbs. LEDs last 100,000 hours vs. 2,000 for incandescents. The solid-state construction of LEDs makes them sturdier as well.

Uniroyal entered into a lease for the Sabal facility in July 1998 and has been building product there. It plans to have products ready for shipping to customers in January.

One of Uniroyal's competitors, Hewlett-Packard Co., also is bullish on LED development.

"LEDS are a technology that will eclipse the incandescent," said Allen Owen, marketing communications manager for Hewlett-Packard in San Jose, Calif.

"We're big believers in the future of LEDs in taking on the many roles of incandescents. It's a future that will happen sooner rather than later. And, I think tech advances by any company will expand the market overall."

Hewlett-Packard is the biggest supplier for LEDs for red traffic light signals.

Dave Szymanski is editor of The Business Journal. You can reach him at (813) 873-8225, ext. 213, or via e-mail at dszymanski@amcity.com.