USA - Hexcel follows Vestas to North Colorado

Economic incentives and Colorado's mountain vistas held no sway in persuading Hexcel Corp. to build a new manufacturing plant in Windsor.

"We are here because our biggest customer, Vestas, is here," David Berges, chief executive and chairman of the Stamford, Conn., company told a crowd gathered Thursday at the Great Western Industrial Park, where the company held a ceremonial groundbreaking for a new 100,000-square-foot facility.

Hexcel announced it would put a plant in Windsor to supply Vestas, a Danish maker of wind-turbine blades, with a critical component needed to make its long turbine blades stiffer and lighter.

Hexcel makes a component that consists of an epoxy-resin formulation reinforced with glass and carbon fibers.

Those resins must be kept refrigerated or frozen so they don't cure, making it cost-prohibitive to ship them to Windsor from Hexcel's other plants in Austria and China.

The company is the first to locate in the industrial park to be closer to Vestas, said Larry Burkhardt, president and CEO of Upstate Colorado Economic Development Corp.

"The bulkier, the heavier the parts, the closer they need to be to the Vestas plant," Burkhardt said.

Hexcel hasn't disclosed the number of jobs it wants to create locally, perhaps because it may not know exactly what kind of demand Vestas will generate.

Vestas has hired about 400 people at its Windsor plant, but last week it said it will freeze new hires at its Brighton and Pueblo facilities until it gets a better handle on the market for wind turbines.

The credit crisis is making it difficult for Vestas customers to obtain the financing they need to purchase equipment.

And finding capital to build the Hexcel facility wasn't so easy either.

Great Western Development Co., an affiliate of the Broe Group, agreed to construct the new plant and lease it back to Hexcel.

"We were able to get creative and come up with a financing mechanism to get Hexcel going," said Rich Montgomery, vice president of industrial development with Broe, which also owns the industrial park.

Exterior walls for the new plant have been erected, and Hexcel hopes to begin production in the second half of the year.

Burkhardt suggests that people interested in working for the company contact Employment Services of Weld County. Aims Community College is working with Hexcel to create a training program for new workers, he said.

For more information please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net