Invista to establish new plant to make pipeline pipes in McPherson

Invista, a unit of Koch Industries, will establish a new manufacturing operation in McPherson to expand production of its Raptor nylon pipe for oil pipelines.

The company plans to convert an existing building in McPherson and begin production by early spring.

The company will start with about a dozen manufacturing employees in McPherson, in addition to the sales, marketing, finance, technical and managerial staff in Wichita and elsewhere, but it expects its workforce to grow as demand for the product grows.

“Establishing a production facility in Kansas brings a number of efficiencies to our customers, including reducing delivery time to targeted basins in the Midwest, flexibility in production, and leveraging the capabilities of a skilled central Kansas workforce,” Kurt Burmeister, Invista executive vice president, said in a statement. “With demand for our product increasing, we need to increase our production capacity.”

No incentives were sought for the project, said Invista spokesman Greg Standifer.

He said McPherson was chosen because of the existing plastic extrusion expertise in McPherson and its pro-business environment.

Brad Eilts, executive director of McPherson Industrial Development Co., noted that the community has 17 or 18 plastics manufacturing-related businesses. The building Invista chose formerly housed Vanguard Plastics until that company was purchased by Viega, which moved the operation in 2009 to a new manufacturing/distribution facility, also in McPherson.

“This fits in beautifully with our plastics cluster,” Eilts said of the Invista project.

This story was originally published February 4, 2015 at 10:58 AM with the headline "Invista to establish new plant to make pipeline pipes in McPherson."