Sapa moves equipment in for expansion that will add 30 jobs

One of the northeastern Louisiana Delta’s largest private employers is set to create more jobs in 2012 as Sapa Extrusions continues construction on an expansion in Delhi.

The company is installing equipment this week in a second facility that will allow Sapa to expand its profile in the stadium and oil and gas platform business, creating about 30 new jobs.

Sapa, which extrudes aluminum products such as stadium seats, auto and construction parts and makes aluminum logs for raw material at its existing operation on U.S. 80, will open a fabrication center in a former boat plant just north of the town on Louisiana 17.

“Everything is on track,” Delhi Sapa plant manager Ron Ballman said. “It’s coming along very well and is very promising.”

Ballman said one piece of equipment, a press, was so large it had to be lowered through the roof by a crane.

“We had to take the roof off to get it inside,” Ballman said. “We’ll continue installing the equipment through Friday.”

Sapa, whose expansion was first announced in The News-Star in October, already employs 241 workers with a $7.4 million annual payroll in Delhi at its primary plant, second in private sector jobs only to ConAgra’s new sweet potato plant.

“We see this as an exciting opportunity to grow our business and our relationship with the community,” Ballman said. “We’re investing in the community and our work force. It’s a huge vote of confidence from our company.”

Sapa is relocating the plant to Delhi from Magnolia, Ark., where Ballman said some of the new employees are training now.

“We’ll be partially operational in January and fully operation by the second week of February,” he said.

The $600,000 capital project was aided by about $325,000 in state incentives.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to bring more highly skilled jobs to northeastern Louisiana,” said state Sen. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi. “It shows we can compete with other states and win.”