Guardian Industries Invests in Hungary Plant

Guardian Industries of Auburn Hills, Mich., is investing in a new glass coater and expansion project at its Oroshaza, Hungary float glass plant. According to the company, the $37-million investment includes a new 38,000-square-foot (3,530-square-meter) building that will house the technologically advanced magnetron coater. The addition of the coater will enable the plant to produce ClimaGuard™ N and ClimaGuard™ Premium -- both residential low-E products. The new coater will coat up to six million square meters of glass per year.

"Southeast Europe, particularly Hungary and Romania, has seen an increase in commercial and residential construction and with that, the need for high-quality energy efficient windows has grown as well," said Guardian Glass Group president Russ Ebeid. "With ground-breaking advances in research, Guardian continues to meet the needs of its customers and develop products for future applications in emerging glass markets."

The new coater will begin production in the fall of 2007 and create 50 new jobs at the plant.

Guardian opened the Oroshaza plant in 1990, and in doing so, became the first foreign company to invest in a new float glass facility in Eastern Europe.