Cardinal Glass is building a new factory in Durant, Okla. It will be a duplicate of this facility in Portage, Wis.

Southeast Oklahoma
Snares New Investment

After reflecting for nearly a year on the various merits of several sites in Oklahoma and Texas, Cardinal Glass Industries made Durant, Okla., the clear choice for its new float glass operation. For Durant, a town of about 14,000 on the Texas border, proximity to other Cardinal facilities and Oklahoma's tax rate tipped the scale.
        "It came down to economics," says Rich Valtierra, who will manage the new Durant plant. "Taxes in Oklahoma for this facility are about $1 million less than in Texas. That's pretty significant."
        The $100-million facility will employ 240 as it ships products in a swath from Iowa to Mexico. Construction begins in April 2002 with a target opening date of late 2004. The plant is designed to melt 600 tons of glass daily.
        It will also supply coating quality products to the company's Waxahachie, Texas, facility, set to open in June. The Texas plant is being built to satisfy increasing demand for coated glass as an energy management tool.
        "It's a good-looking piece of dirt," Valtierra says of the Durant site. "We require decent elevation change in our sites. We have good power with a large substation and rail access on the north border of the site."
        Broken Bow, in the southeastern corner of the state near the Arkansas and Texas borders, will be the setting for Huber Engineered Woods' (HEW) new $130-million, 425,000-sq.-ft. (39,500-sq.-m) oriented strand board (OSB) plant, which will employ 160. The product is used in construction, repair, remodeling and industrial applications.
        The factory will produce about 629 million sq. ft. (58,434,100 sq. m.) of OSB annually. Huber officials say the plant will create more than 250 secondary jobs in harvesting, hauling and support services and will have a total economic impact of more than $25 million per year. It will serve markets in the south-central and western U.S. The company broke ground for the project in November 2002 and hopes to be operational in early 2004.
        John Bozeman, vice president of business development for Charlotte, N.C.-based HEW, says the Broken Bow site offers good access to an abundant wood supply, a good pool of skilled labor and transportation options, say HEW officials.