A local company celebrated the kickoff of a large expansion earlier this week. On Wednesday, Hydro Tube Enterprises broke ground on a 45,000-square-foot addition at 2645 Mt. Pisgah Church Road, according to Tim Althaus, the company’s president of North Carolina Operations.
“We moved into this building in 2009,” he said. “It’s 60,000 square feet. About three years after that, we needed to add on 6,800 square feet. We thought that would hold us for a while, which it has until now. With some added contracts, we’re out of space.”
Hydro Tube Enterprises produces bent tubular products for a variety of industries and recently added two new laser cutting machines. “So we needed to add space. We’re adding 45,000 square feet,” Althaus explained. “That’s going to put us up around 115,000 square feet for the whole building. Hopefully, that lasts us for a few years.”
Althaus described the company’s manufacturing capabilities and mentioned several of their major customers. “We’re a steel tube fabricator,” he said. “We do tube laser cutting, CNC bending, powder coating, welding. We supply a lot of OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) like Ingersoll Rand, John Deere, Hendrick Motorsports, and local companies like South Bend Range in Fuquay, Bueller out of Cary, and Lagrand USA. We’ve grown every year that we’ve been in business.”
Sanford Area Growth Alliance CEO Jimmy Randolph called the expansion a “momentous day.” Randolph emphasized Hydro Tube’s role as a longtime employer and investor in the area.
Sanford Mayor Rebecca Salmon echoed those remarks, highlighting the company’s importance as both an employer and corporate citizen. “This type of investment in our community is how we all succeed,” she said. “Your success is our success. We have tried to create a great environment where when we bring folks in and invite people into our community, they can not only plant their roots here but grow into everything they can possibly be. That’s exactly what’s happening here. This is a flourishing business.”
Lee County Commissioner Taylor Vorbeck also praised the expansion as a prime example of what happens when existing businesses receive strong community support.
Althaus, who joined Hydro Tube Enterprises in 1987, shared the company’s history. It began in a garage in Ohio in 1969 and now has another location in Oberlin, Ohio, which has grown to 100,000 square feet and employs around 70 people.
When Hydro Tube’s ownership decided to open a facility in North Carolina, they initially started with 26,000 square feet in Pittsboro. “We ran there for about 12 years or so,” Althaus said. In 2009, the ownership was sold to a family trust in Ohio. “The Cook family, who still owns it today, came in and said 26,000 square feet wasn’t enough.”
The company then found a 60,000-square-foot building in Lee County on the eastern edge of Sanford. “We thought, man that’s a lot of space. How are we going to fill it up? Within four to five years, we added 6,800 square feet.”
Over the past five years, Hydro Tube Enterprises has invested more than $5 million in equipment, Althaus noted. Looking ahead, they have been awarded several new contracts for 2026 that require additional space. “We expect probably in the range of 20% growth next year, which means hopefully 10 to 12 new employees,” he said.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/local-plant-breaks-ground-large-120500330.html
