MAGNOLIA -- Employees, executives, city officials and military members gathered last week at Amfuel in Magnolia for a ceremonial groundbreaking for the plant's chemical spray room area.
The total investment for the facility is estimated at $2.38 million, officials have said. With a $150,000 grant, Magnolia's economic development fund helped in the deal between the U.S. Department of Defense and Amfuel. The federal government and the fuel-cell manufacturer covered the remaining sum of more than $2 million.
The company -- which has had a multitude of ownership groups over its decadeslong history, including Firestone, Zodiac Elastomer, and American Fuel Cell and Coated Fabrics Co. -- is now in the hands of LB Capital Advisors. The private investment firm in 2018 purchased the Magnolia plant and its assets out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The funds will go toward the infrastructure needs of three mobile spray rooms for a new "preferred fuel cell" project as the company expands its product lines. Within the new booths, chemical compounds will be sprayed onto the cells as a final step before they head out to the U.S. military.
The new cells are set to be a front-line product at Amfuel, according to Ellie Baker, director of Magnolia Economic Development.
Once the project is completed next year, Magnolia will have one of only two plants in the country to produce the new cell line.
Amfuel's new ownership has brought in and reached out to numerous former employees with knowledge of the product lines.
Magnolia Mayor Parnell Vann said he had been excited when he was told that former, experience-laden employees would be drawn back into the fold.
"I thought, 'now that's thinking,'" he said. "Go back to where it all began."
Earlier in the month, a Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopter landed at the Magnolia airport for Amfuel employees to see their fuel-cell products in action. U.S. Marine Corps Col. Vic Argobright, a commanding officer who has flown the attack helicopter for 20 years, made it known just how valuable the workers at the plant are to the military.
"What you do here on a daily basis is really important," he said. "Right now, we've got aircraft on training missions all around the country, we've got aircraft that are flying off the ships in the middle of the ocean, we've got aircraft on deployment in the Middle East -- both in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and they're flying your products. That's pretty awesome if you think about it."
The AH-1 contains bladders made by Amfuel. The number of products on back order over the past six to eight months has been cut in half, according to Argobright.
The plant is also growing. A new, permanent Defense Contract Management Agency employee was recently placed at the Magnolia plant, and the company has an office in Camden.
"I believe you are at the beginning of some very good times," said Rodney Mayo, deputy commander at the Defense Contract Management Agency Lockheed Martin Fort Worth.
Metro on 12/23/2019