Trex announces expansion plans in the US

Trex Co., a wood-alternative decking and outdoor living product manufacturer based in Winchester, Virginia, has announced plans to develop a new multifaceted production site in Little Rock, Arkansas. The company says it believes that building a third U.S.-based manufacturing facility should enable it to increase customer access. 

Trex says it expects to invest an estimated $400 million over the next five years in developing the new Arkansas site. The Trex campus will sit on about 300 acres of land and include buildings dedicated to decking and railing production, plastic film recycling and processing, warehousing and administrative offices. 

Construction is slated to begin early 2022. The development approach will be modular and calibrated to demand trends, with the first production output anticipated in 2024. The campus will expand output and has the potential to be the company’s largest manufacturing facility, according to Trex.

“This new site represents a strategic investment not only in our company’s future but in the future success of our valued channel partners,” says Bryan Fairbanks, CEO and president of Trex. “With the outdoor living category continuing to show strong momentum and our success to date in converting share from the wood decking market, the time is right to further expand our capacity so that we can meet future customer demand efficiently and effectively.” 

Trex says the new production complex will be located within the Port of Little Rock. The location emerged as the best fit for the company’s immediate and future needs with a location closer to essential raw materials, a strong pool of qualified and skilled labor, proximity to key growth regions for wood conversion and adjacency to major transportation hubs. 

The company says the added capacity allows it to better serve its distribution and retail partners domestically and abroad.  

“This is an exciting day for the city of Little Rock and all of Central Arkansas,” says Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. “Trex is highly regarded as the world’s premier composite decking company, and it is with great pleasure that we welcome them to Arkansas. The jobs created by Trex will significantly enhance our economic climate, and I look forward to watching Trex grow and succeed in the coming years.”

Trex says the facility will bring more than 500 new jobs to the Little Rock area. The company will be interviewing candidates for positions starting this fall. Trex will broaden its recruiting efforts for salaried and hourly positions in spring 2022. 

“This expansion provides Trex with important competitive advantages in today’s dynamic outdoor living market,” Fairbanks says. “It will afford us the ability to flex with demand by adding capacity as needed. Having multiple manufacturing sites also helps mitigate risk while providing bandwidth to pursue new opportunities that will enable us to further leverage our unsurpassed brand recognition and expand our presence both domestically and internationally.”