Aluminum products company expands in Louisa

FERNCLIFF — Recently expanded production facility capabilities and a positive outlook for American manufacturing are positioning Patriot Aluminum Products for long-term growth.

But first, said Tom Click, Patriot Aluminum’s president and CEO, the company still has a few more boxes to unpack. Patriot Aluminum moved into a newly constructed 30,000-square-foot production facility at the end of May. The building project broke ground last August.

“Business has been very good, and it’s nice that we were able to make the move and the transition without any kind of disruption,” Click said. “It’s kind of like moving your house if you had a 30,000-square-foot-house. We still have a lot of things in boxes — some of the non-critical pieces of equipment, some of the inventory and small tools, things like that.”

The Louisa County building is 50 percent larger than the company’s former space in the Earlysville area of Albemarle County. It’s also the first business in the Ferncliff Business Park.

Patriot Aluminum manufactures rigid aluminum conduit. Click said the company plans to begin serving two other product markets — galvanized steel and stainless steel conduits and fittings.

“Our products are aimed at infrastructure markets,” Click said. “This is not a bubble-type market. Much of our product is used in wastewater treatment plants, chemical facilities, pharmaceutical facilities, dairy farms … it’s basically driven by industries that grow with the population, so it’s a slow growth, but it’s a consistent market.”

Patriot Aluminum currently employs more than 40 people. By the end of next year, Click said, the company expects to employ between 75 and 100 people.

“All successful businesses contribute to the local economy, and Patriot is no exception,” Andy Wade, Louisa County’s economic development director, said in an email. The company’s decision to locate in the business park bodes well for future development, he said.

Sarah Click, Clicks’s wife and a business partner in Patriot Aluminum, said, “I come from an industrial engineering background. I worked for General Motors as an industrial engineer for a few years, but then I transitioned from there to Accenture in strategy consulting.”

When it comes to Patriot Aluminum, she said, those skills “have come in handy when we’ve thought about how to build the business and what we wanted the driving force of the business [to be].”

Wade said Patriot’s decision to locate in the business park has generated interest from other businesses “and as a result, we are now negotiating with at least one very serious prospect and several interested prospects.”

“Patriot’s value proposition is really based around service and quality,” Tom Click said. “The product doesn’t cost any more, but it’s the best quality and the best service level, and we’re still the only American-owned and -operated family business which is producing the full line of aluminum conduit products. Those things really do set us apart from our competitors.”

As they look to the company’s future, the Clicks said one development strategy that’s not on the table is stepping away from the business to direct their attention to a new entrepreneurial endeavor.

“We’re building this business for the long-term,” Tom Click said. “It’s very trendy now to build a business and then take it public or sell it to somebody else. We don’t have that as our focus.”

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