Tristar Glass, headquartered in Catoosa, Okla., is expanding its Dallas operations into a 180,000-square-foot facility. President Tim Kelley explains the move is in response to greater demand for the company’s products and to service a wider and more diverse customer base.
The facility is expected to be fully operational by summer 2023.
“We are investing in more capacity to serve the market better,” says Kelley. “We’ve needed to expand our Dallas plant to keep up with demand for our products and to service a wider and more diverse customer base. We have been at capacity for a while, and our current customer base has had to manage through our lead times. Our new space will provide room to set up our process in the most efficient way possible and allow room for growth and further expansion.”
Equipment installation in the new facility will begin in March. The facility will house various new technologies, including a flat glass tempering furnace with autopilot operator controls and LiteSentry-Softsolution distortion and anisotropy measurement systems. Officials add that all this will be fed via an automated seaming/batching system and a glass processing equipment jumbo washing machine.
“We are always looking to upgrade our equipment to stay ahead of and/or in line with the industry’s latest trend,” says Kelley. “Oversized glass has been trending for several years now, and Dallas will now be operating with a furnace capable of handling jumbo glass and capabilities.”
Kelley explains the added space will allow Tristar to bring additional products such as laminated, silkscreen and heavy fabrication to its Texas plants. In addition to the expansion, Tristar aims to secure more service work throughout north Texas and Oklahoma.
“Our focus has been on the larger projects, not the monumental work, and our customer base that looks at these projects has managed to stay steady,” he says. “We plan to diversify our portfolio and project mix more with the added capacity to better serve our local partners and their needs.”
