BOARDMAN, Ohio -- Specialty Switch is relocating its Washingtonville operations in Columbiana County to 525 McClurg Road. Thirty jobs are affected.
Another company, Zenith Transformer Components, is also relocating to the site on McClurg Road, formerly the American Church building, says Piotr Blaslzczyk, general manager of Specialty Switch.
Zenith, based in Waukesha, Wis., is a provider of components and services for large to medium-sized power transformers. The companies will merge and operate under the name Specialty Switch, according to Blaszczyk.
"So it is a great marriage for both of the companies," he says.
Kutlick Realty LLC negotiated for the purchase of the 40,000-square-foot-building, which sold for $1.2 million. The buyer is Canduct Holdings USA, which will lease the site to Specialty Switch.
Specialty Switch manufactures power transformers for substations used by utility companies. It sells 95% of the products within the United States and Canada. The building on McClurg Road will house the company’s manufacturing and distribution operations.
Specialty Switch was privately owned 29 years until it was acquired last May by Canduct.
Blaszczyk says the merger with Zenith and move from Washingtonville, will boost annual revenues to $8 million from $4 million.
Specialty Switch plans to hire five additional employees once operations are up and running and as many as 10 more at a later date. "I think the transformer market is getting better after a few years of stagnation," he adds.
Specialty Switch, growing 10% to 15% every year, Blaszczyk says, will double its operating space when it moves into the building around the end of March.
"We are going to move the existing production slowly, piece by piece, because we don't want to impact our customers," he says.
Pictured: Industrial space inside the former American Church building in Boardman.
Copyright 2015 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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