Zebulon-based foam manufacturer Nomaco has opened a 60,000-square-foot facility dedicated to innovation and development. More than 150 customers, associates and members of the community came together on Monday, June 12, Nomaco’s 38th anniversary, to celebrate the grand opening of the company’s Gert Noël Innovation Center located at 530 East Gannon Avenue.
“This is an exciting milestone for our company,” explained Nomaco CEO Lars von Kantzow. “We now have a facility that has dedicated development lines for experimentation and trials, a lab for research and analysis, and extruders that will be able to handle initial production of our new products once they are commercialized.”
The Innovation Center’s initial focus is on polypropylene-based products, a new polymer platform for Nomaco, which has traditionally worked with polyethylene.
New products to be further developed and finalized within the Center include Nomaflex®, a joint filler for concrete construction, and structural foam made with Herculean™ Technology, which has applications in the transportation and construction industries.
“In addition to development and research space, this facility will serve as a startup production for products until they can justify a dedicated production facility,” explained von Kantzow. “At that point, our intent is to move the commercialized products to a dedicated production facility and continue utilizing the innovation space to develop the next technologies on our horizon.”
The new facility is named after the father of Nomaco founder Marc Noël. Gert Noël founded the original family business, NMC sa in Belgium and was a driving force for innovation within the Nomaco family. It was because of his tenacity and belief that a synthetic closure could solve the pervasive problem of wine taint that Nomaco developed the Nomacorc® wine closure, which led to the establishment of a separate company and the redefining of an industry.
“My father was truly an innovator,” said Marc Noël. “With the Gert Noël Innovation Center, we carry on his legacy while building the future of our company.”
The new center will house 15 people initially and is expected to employ approximately 75 as the facility grows to capacity in the next three years. Altogether, the company employs approximately 175 full-time and part-time associates in Zebulon.
Established on June 12, 1979, Nomaco is a leader in the design and extrusion of custom engineered foam products and components for a wide range of markets including construction, home furnishings, packaging, fitness & recreation and more. For more information on the company, visit www.nomaco.com.
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