DATE: Friday, October 3, 1997               TAG: 9710030615

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: 1D   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   70 lines

LINDAB'S U.S. FUTURE IS NOW SWEDEN-BASED COMPANY IS CORNERING NATIONAL MARKET FOR ROUND DUCT PIPE

With U.S. sales almost doubling every year since 1993, Sweden-based Lindab Inc. has tripled the size of its only U.S. plant, which opened less than four years ago in an old Coca-Cola bottling plant on Airline Boulevard.

``We started from scratch here, and sales have been just about what we thought they would be,'' Lindab president Lars Nilsson said recently. ``We expected $8 million and did a little less than $10 million in three years.''

The company specializes in round duct pipe. Lindab has been in business in Europe for more than 30 years, and now has 40 plants in Europe and Asia. This year Lindab expects its sales around the world to top $400 million.

``We anticipate rapid growth in the U.S., 20 to 30 percent for several more years,'' Nilsson said.

Dave Pest, who manages the Portsmouth plant and is Lindab's U.S. vice president, said the future of the Portsmouth facility is bright because less than 10 percent of the ducts in the United States are round, compared with about 50 percent in Europe.

He explained that as folks in the United States realize the round systems are more efficient and easier to install, the business will grow.

``We really have a future in this country because of so many buildings with return ducts,'' he said. ``Our way of making these products is the future.''

In addition to the spiral ducts, the company manufactures hard-to-make bits and pieces of duct systems.

The new $350 million hospital at the Navy's Regional Medical Center in Portsmouth has Lindab's round ducts running between each level of the building.

Pest said S&S Mechanical, a contractor on the Navy building, contacted him directly.

``We didn't have a distributor here at the time (the contractor) needed it,'' Pest said. Since then, Hobbs and Associates in Virginia Beach, Richmond and Roanoke have become Lindab's Virginia product distributors.

Nilsson said the company has limited its reach to the Mississippi River except for a distributor in St. Louis.

``We haven't been able to handle any more,'' he said.

The expansion of the Portsmouth plant should enable the company to stretch its national reach.

``This is just the beginning,'' Nilsson said at a recent celebration of the new addition. ``If you think expansion is over, you're welcome to come back in a few more years.''

He said the company has enough space on its Airline Boulevard property for another expansion.

``We still can double what we did this time,'' he said. ``It was an excellent decision to buy the plant. It is a solid building, and we have the land.''

The initial plant in the remodeled Coca-Cola building contained 47,000 square feet. The new addition expanded the plant to 160,400 square feet.

Lindab's initial investment was about $5 million, and the recent expansion cost another $4 million. Last winter, the Portsmouth Industrial Development Authority gave Lindab approval for $7 million in industrial revenue bonds for the expansion.

``We will be adding about $1 million a year in new equipment,'' Nilsson said.

The Portsmouth division of the company started with nine employees in 1993 and now employs 65. ILLUSTRATION: IAN MARTIN color photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Dave Pest is Lindab Inc.'s U.S. vice president. The company has its

only U.S. plant in Portsmouth and recently underwent a $4 million

expansion.

Lindab ventured into the U.S. market four years ago and says it

expects another expansion.

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