- FiberTEK introduces itself to Juab County
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By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
What is FiberTEK besides the newest plant to locate in Juab County?
The pedigree of Fibertek Insulation extends back to the early 1950s when Ivan Radman first arrived in Australia.
After several small ventures, Radman began to take an interest in Insulation, a new area of technology and business in Australia, in the early 1960s.
Starting with cellulose insulation and gradually moving into “rockwool” or mineral fiber insulation, Radman and his family eventually migrated to America and set up a fiberglass plant in Salt Lake City under the name of Western Fiberglass.
Radman grew his small Western Fiberglass venture into a business that served the western United States with premium insulation products from plants in Texas, Arizona and Utah.
The company concentrated on making small plants viable in a market dominated by large and successful competitors. The steady growth enabled Radman and his engineering group, W. F. Engineering, to originate many new and unique engineering solutions for the fiberizing of glass.
The group also developed glass melting technology that enabled their small plants to stay competitive as the cost of energy soared.
Western Fiberglass was sold in the mid 1990s to Owens Corning Fiberglass and the W. F. technology group spent the next ten years building small plants for the production of fiberglass throughout Asia, Canada and the United States.
Re-entry into the insulation manufacturing market became a possibility with the lapse of a non-compete agreement.
W.F. Engineering purchased an existing facility and under the banner of FiberTEK Insulation, put together the latest in fiberization, glass melting and packaging technology. This market leading technology has made the Radman Group, along with several licensees, a worldwide force.
In a facts sheet released to the press, officials indicated the fiberglass insulation market was supplied by a handful of suppliers who have, in the past, maintained stable pricing through expansion and contraction periods within the market.
For most of the suppliers, insulation is part of their businesses with other parts involved in glass products. Therefore, companies generally cannot afford to lower prices in their insulation business as it is the one area where they are profitable.
The price of insulation has steadily increased over the last seven years and the trend is expected to continue. Energy costs remain high and there is a general interest in energy conservation.
Green building and general changes in the building code tend to increase the number of insulation pounds per home making the market solid.
“The existing production capacity of major suppliers is at relatively high utilization level with competitors rarely adding capacity,” reported the facts sheet.
FTI’s central Florida plant serves the Eastern United States market. The Florida facility is located in a 275,000-square foot facility on 100 acres of land near Tampa near I-4 and employs 100 people.
The new Western facility, located in Juab County, will service the Western US with Premium FiberTEK Insulation. |
