Zell-Metall, a plastics manufacturing firm, will expand operations into the northeast Kansas city of Lenexa with the building of a $3.5 million,10,000-square-foot, plastic extrusion manufacturing facility.

The company, which is headquartered in Austria, produces sheet, rod and tube from plastic resins. Most of the materials produced replace metal gears, cams, bushings, and many other alloy parts.

"This is an exciting time for the Klepsch Group Companies," said Patrick Pheffer, president, ZL Engineering Plastics. "The state of Kansas has gone out of their way to enable our company to put deep roots in North America. With lead times cut by 60 percent, the new facility will enable ZL Engineering Plastics to truly compete and grow our market share."

All products manufactured at the Lenexa facility will be sold to distributors that do business in North America, he said. The facility, which will hire more than a dozen workers, will enabled the company to eventually reduce the need for importing products from overseas to less than 10 percent of current demand. The facility should be operational by August.

The building will be located next to ZL Engineering Plastics, which provides sales services for Zell-Metall.

"This is great news for Lenexa and the state," said Kansas Commerce Secretary Pat George. "We want Kansas to be a strong manufacturing state, and it's encouraging that Zell-Metall wants to expand its operations here."