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Glass Manufacturer Re-opens In St. George, Brings 300 Jobs

Viracon

Viracon was forced to close its glass manufacturing plant in 2013 after the economic impact of the recession dampened demand for architectural glass.

The company is following through on their promise to return when the economy for glass improved, said Director of Marketing for Viracon, Kevin Anez.

“It was really a result of the recession that was lagging on, and since then we’ve seen a turnaround and the levels of demand are growing higher than we’ve seen in several years,” Anez said. “It’s great to see the commercial market coming back, and for those reasons we are opening our St. George plant so that we can better manage our capacity levels.”

Anez said the company expects to employ 300 workers by end of next year and will begin manufacturing in January of 2015.

“The hope is we’ll have a lot of folks returning back to work that used to work for Viracon,” Anez said.

He also said the company will be re-opening the existing facility, but will be making some renovations in the coming months.

“Over the next three months we’ll be investing about $2.2 million in capital to do some renovation and bring on some new equipment,” Anez said.

At the time of its closure, the St. George plant was the smallest of Viracon’s manufacturing facilities.