WEBSTER, N.Y. -- The ribbon was cut Tuesday on the $35 million expansion to the Xerox EA Toner production facility in Webster.
The expansion includes a 55,000 square foot addition to the existing emulsion aggregation toner plant, built in 2007, which increases the overall size of the building to 155,000 square feet.
"We're trying to stay up with the state-of-the-art in terms of toner technology, competitive with the Far East competitors we have to deal with," said Rick Schmachtenberg, Xeros VP Consumable Development and Manufacturing. "This new toner technology was really important in order to keep us competitive and a world-class manufacturer of xerographic products."
The Webster facility is just the second EA Toner plant in the world. It produces a latex-based chemical toner from a wet process into a dry product that is protected by more than 300 patents and produces sharper images using less toner per page.
The plant is energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
"Energy savings are par through the whole process from top down but also in our centrally use system, so we clean our water that is going back into the environment almost as clean as it's going into the product," said Ralph Gootzen, Xerox EA Toner Plant Manager.
The addition will result in 54 new full-time jobs. That brings the total of new full-time positions at the Webster campus over the last 10 years to 182.
The expansion also increases tax revenue for the town of Webster.
"This building could have gone to Japan or Australia or something, but they decided to build here in Webster and we are absolutely overjoyed to have them here," said Town Supervisor Ron Nesbitt, R-Webster.
State grants and tax abatements helped pay for the expansion, which took two years to complete.
The expansion was added to a building originally constructed back in 2007. The new facility consists of more than 29 miles of pipe and more than 100 stainless steel tanks.