JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Johnstown manufacturing company JWF Industries is planning to invest $150 million to build two new facilities and add equipment as it prepares to generate 200 new jobs over the next two years, company leaders said Thursday.
Driven in part by new opportunities in the railcar industry, JWF Industries President and CEO Bill Polacek said the company is exploring potential sites for a new facility in Hastings, Ebensburg or an area behind JWF’s main facility on Iron Street in Johnstown.
In addition, JWF Industries is planning to open a site in Somerset County for more manufacturing space and finished goods storage, he said.
JWF Industries employs more than 400 people and designs, manufactures and integrates metal-centric products. The company has operating sales of more than $100 million per year and occupies more than 1.3 million square feet of manufacturing space.
With manufacturing opportunities surging across multiple markets, including the national defense industry as well as railcars, JWF is set to expand, Polacek said.
“We are a metal-centric, diversified business, and I’ve always said having eight markets is like having an eight-cylinder engine – sometimes four pop, and sometimes only two. What’s happening is all cylinders are popping,” he said. “That’s what’s creating this dynamic expansion.”
Polacek and his brother, JWF Industries Chief Operating Officer John Polacek, made the announcement Thursday before local, state and federal officials and a couple dozen employees at the company’s Cramer Pike facility in West Taylor Township, where JWF recently completed a $5 million exterior renovation and added a new horizontal boring machine.
“It is the largest piece of machining equipment in western Pennsylvania,” Bill Polacek said. “This will really support our NavSea (Naval Sea Systems Command) market that is expanding.”
In the future, the Naval Sea Systems Command alone will require more than 17 million manufacturing man-hours nationwide in addition to its current level, he said.
“It will not only secure our future today, but there is enough business there for my grandkids’ grandkids’ grandkids, so this is a long-term market, and we are on the cusp of getting some large contracts,” he said.
In addition, over the years since the 2021 federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was passed, JWF Industries developed a strategic plan to compete in the metro and passenger railcar industry, a new market for the company that has long worked in the commercial, national defense and energy markets.
John Polacek said JWF has developed relationships with global railcar companies including Hitachi Rail and Siemens Mobility.