SEAFORD — A Maryland fencing manufacturer with existing connections to Delaware is looking to relocate operations to Sussex County, bringing 20 jobs with them and the potential for more.
Patriot Aluminum of Denton, Md., bought a 45,000-square-foot warehouse along Route 20 just outside of Seaford with plans to relocate manufacturing operations to its new site. The purchase came to $4.5 million in April through a related subsidiary, with plans in the works to invest another $4.8 million in improving the facility.
About 20 employees will work out of the site and the company plans to hire at least 19 more in the next three years. Those roles include skilled and unskilled jobs, among sales, administrative and managerial roles.
The Council on Development Finance approved a $240,750 grant from the strategic fund on Monday which includes $96,000 in job performance incentives and a capital expenditure rate of $144,750.
Patriot Aluminum was acquired by Dover Air Force Veteran John Forrest in 2004. By that point, Forrest had established a name in the fencing business through J&M Fencing 20 years earlier. At that time, vinyl sales representative Bill Long invested the seed money for Forrest’s business. That created a long-term partnership that led the fencing company, now named Forrest Fence, to follow Long to Maryland for business.
Both Forrest and Long became part-owners of Gallagher Vinyl Products. The company reported $12 million in sales last year and are on track to bring another $4 million on top of that, according to Patriot Aluminum Chief Administration Officer Kelly Shotwell.
“We serve a broad and growing customer base. We’re not only in Delaware or Maryland; we’re in Virginia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia, the Carolinas and even Florida,” Shotwell said. “We’re continuing to expand into new markets nationwide.”
Patriot Aluminum produces, assembles and distributes metal fences and currently has $2.3 million in inventory on the ground before the final tariffs are set on other materials the company is importing. In part, the Patriot Aluminum pivoted to manufacturing the fence slats themselves to raise profit margins.
Patriot Aluminum has already planned to buy a major piece of equipment that would essentially bake coatings on the fence slats and plans to purchase another truck to distribute products to customers.
The company also has significant ties to MJK Properties, the development company started by Forrest and John Miller which has plans to build a small business park in Felton. That project was approved for $1 million in taxpayer-backed grants from the Site Readiness Fund. MJK Properties also owns the warehouse where Patriot Aluminum plans to relocate.
CDF Councilmember Jack Riddle raised questions of “serious line of credit” and $2.2 million that had been passed between the web of companies. Patriot Comptroller George Hufnagel Jr. said that the company was slowly paying that debt off as business picked up.
To that end, the council voted unanimously to approve the grant with the stipulation that Forrest is brought on as a guarantor for the financials that support the application.
