A Rathdrum Prairie company that makes foam insulation and packaging materials is expanding its manufacturing complex considerably and plans to hire five to six additional workers once the expansion is completed.


The company, FMI-EPS LLC, which formerly was known as Foam Molders Inc., is having a 31,000-square-foot plant built for it just east of its current, 45,000-square-foot facility at 9456 McGuire Road, which is just south of Hayden Avenue and north of the city of Post Falls. The total cost of the project, including a $900,000 piece of equipment that will be installed in the new building, is about $3.4 million, says Gary Bremer, who co-owns FMI-EPS with his wife, Glenda.


Pro Builders CdA LLC, of Spokane, is the contractor on the project, and Labar Architecture Inc., of Spokane, designed it, Bremer says. The new building will be owned by a sister company, Bremer LLC, of Hauser, Idaho, which also owns the FMI-EPSs 10-year-old plant there, he says.


Bremer says the expansion, which is expected to be completed in July, will double the companys production capacity. The company, which currently employs 17 workers in North Idaho, will add the additional employees after that, he says.


FMI-EPS manufactures its foam insulation and packaging materials from a plastic foam called expanded polystyrene, or EPS for short.


The $900,000 piece of equipment that will be installed in the new building is called a block-molding machine. It expands granulated polystyrene material and forms it into foam blocks.


Bremer says the companys customers are wholesale suppliers and distributors throughout the Northwest. Its insulation products are used in residential and commercial construction, and its packaging materials are made for a variety of purposes, from shipping computers to handling fresh fish.


The Bremers also own an EPS plant in Jerome, Idaho, which Bremer co-founded with his father in 1993. That plant, formerly called Northwest Design Molders Inc., also is part of FMI-EPS, although the headquarters office is in Post Falls.


Bremer says the companys revenues have grown 10 percent to 20 percent annually in recent years, and the expansion in Post Falls will allow continued growth, depending on the economy.


Contact Mike McLean at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at mikem@spokanejournal.com.