Company founder and Chief Executive Officer Lee Mays, 79, said he closed a sale in March on property formerly owned by Artco-Bel for $1.5 million and intends to have as much as $3 million invested when renovations of the plant are complete.
The company lost a 300,000-square-foot plant in Belton to a raging fire on Dec. 6, 2007. A column of smoke from the fire was so high it was visible as far south as Round Rock, according to some reports.
Mays said the company’s losses were more than $10 million including $4 million in specialized machinery for furniture manufacturing.
Mays said the building on North General Bruce Drive has 125,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space and 10,000 square feet of office space. The original owner was American Desk Co. - the first of the light industries to locate in Temple.
Mays said Indeco Sales serves as a wholesale distributor of furniture used in public buildings, schools and churches. Maco Manufacturing produces wood laminates and desks, bookcases, magazine racks, institutional wood furniture and library shelving among other things.
“Our sales were $30 million last year,” Mays said. “Our market area includes Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico.”
Crews were working Tuesday improving the parking lot while technicians with Powers Machines of Fort Worth started setup for a production line of UV roll coaters. The machines apply a precise amount of urethane finish to wood products.
Official start date for renovations of the building is May 1, Mays said.
“We are spending $170,000 on new electrical for the machines on the production line first,” he said. “After major renovation begins in May we will be producing at 50 percent production within 45 days and at full production by Aug. 1.”
Mays said he is purchasing replacement machinery for some that he lost in the Belton fire but is outsourcing a portion of the manufacturing process to another Temple firm for the time being.
“Anywhere we can outsource we will,” he said.
Mays said he still has plans to rebuild a 40,000-square-foot facility at 805 E. Fourth St. in Belton - the location that burned in December. He said he would rebuild there if an engineer’s report shows the slabs are useable.
Turley Associates Inc. of Temple will be retained for the design work, he said.
“I like to keep things local,” Mays said.
“I have 12½ acres altogether in Belton. We have a 10,000-square-foot facility for Maco Manufacturing on Cori Drive in Belton.”
The company’s offices did not burn and continue to be used.
City Manager Sam Listi of Belton said the city is still hopeful the Mays family will retain or locate some portion of their operations at the Belton location.
Indeco Sales was founded by Mays and his wife, Doris, in Lubbock in 1969 and incorporated in 1971. It has been in operation in Belton since 1985.
It employs 65 workers and 26 sales representatives.
