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Medfab expands its plant By DAVID PRESZLER Medford Fabrication has begun a $1.5 million expansion and reorganization of its Medford plant. The project, expected to take about two years, will add three buildings to the company's 12-acre site at Central Avenue and McAndrews Road, according to company president Bill Thorndike Jr. The new buildings will add about 20,000 square feet of floor space, allowing the company to run more efficiently. "Ultimately, what we are trying to do is improve the flow of production," says Thorndike. The project will make it much easier for the company to make larger products -- a growing segment of its business. "It's a niche that we can compete in," says Thorndike. For instance, about 10 percent of the company's current sales are products used in the building of power-generating turbines. It makes products such as the steel housing that surrounds the turbines. The size of such items is often limited only by the legal guidelines of what can be loaded onto a truck. Thorndike says the company is well suited to handle large, complex jobs because it has the welding and assembly expertise as well as its own engineering group. The bigger and bulkier the item, he says, the more important it is that it fits into place correctly when a customer receives it. To create a more efficient plant, the company will be tearing down one well-known building and reassembling another. The Medford Blow Pipe Co. building that faces McAndrews Road -- which was built in 1952 -- will be torn down so that a new fabrication building can be erected. Toward the rear of the company's property a building purchased several years ago when Medco auctioned off the equipment from its White City mills will be reassembled. It will house the company's burning building -- where most of the cutting is done. Several other buildings on the company's campus will be remodeled as part of the project. The plant has about 100 employees, and 40 more work at the company's White City plant. Thorndike says he doesn't expect the expansion to translate into more jobs at the plant -- at least not right away. But it should help the business grow. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA