A rendering of Poly-Wood’s new facility in Syracuse

By SHARON HOWELL
Poly-Wood Inc.

Poly-Wood Inc., Syracuse, held groundbreaking ceremonies Thursday, June 25, for their new manufacturing, warehousing and shipping facility. This $23.275 million project marks the sixth expansion in the last five years for Poly-Wood and will provide 250 new career opportunities for already one of the biggest employers in the area.

Co-founder and president of Poly-Wood, Inc., Doug Rassi, speaks at the ground breaking ceremony Thursday, June 25.

“This building will serve as a significant mile mark in the history of the company and a landmark in the community, explained Doug Rassi, co-founder and president of Poly-wood, Inc. “It will represent the year Poly-Wood became visible to our surrounding community as a company, as a brand and as a great employer in the area.

The new facility will bring nearly 5 1/2 acres of usable floor space and create a more efficient process for manufacturing and shipping Poly-wood’s 5,000 different pieces of furniture. “Being able to put all of this under one roof will be a fantastic experience,” Rassi stated, “from start to finish we’ll be able to make the furniture and ship it without taking it across the street to another building.” Not only functional, Rassi described the new structure as “a contemporary environment that is clean and well-lit with over 400 skylights letting in massive quantities of natural light.”

As Poly-Wood celebrates their 25th anniversary this year, they’ve come a long way from their humble beginnings in Rassi’s family garage here in Kosciusko County. Over the next several years they will be adding team members for furniture production, CNC operators and shipping as well as employees with engineering 3-D software skills, sales and marketing skills. “Our business model is e-commerce intensive and skill sets related to e-commerce such as social media and big data; e-comm merchandising will be in high demand,” explained Rassi.

Breaking ground, from left are Brady Maller, vice president of strategy and development; Sean Rassi, vice president of dDesign and technology; Doug Rassi, co-founder and president; Mark Phillabaum, co-founder and vice president of strategic sales; Megan Pierson, director of sales and marketing; and Ross Munn, generalmanager