Sekisui TA Industries Inc., a Garden Grove-based packing tape and supplies maker that’s part of Japan’s Sekisui Chemical Co., plans to move in April to a new 185,000-square-foot headquarters being built in Brea.
The $20 million project stands to grow the company’s space from 110,000 square feet in two Garden Grove buildings across the street from each other to a single site designed and built on 12 acres with a small park. The company, which will own the Brea building, also has room to expand the site to 250,000 square feet.
“We’ve been renting and leasing since the 1970s,” said Holger Chen, Sekisui TA’s vice president of manufacturing and a founder of the tape maker’s predecessor company in 1976. “Now we need a headquarters for future growth. California is the state we decided to stay in.”
The company paid $7 million for the 12 acres last fall and is spending another $7 million on the building itself. With new equipment and hiring, the total investment is $20 million, officials said. Sekisui TA employs 150 people in Garden Grove and plans to add up to 20 more in Brea. The company’s annual sales are $50 million to $100 million.
Sekisui TA bought the land, on the northeast corner of Puente Street and Imperial Highway, from real estate investor and developer Operon Group, according to Ben Seybold, a CB Richard Ellis broker. Tom Dorman and Sandy Nalle were the other brokers on the deal. Brad Christian of Colliers Seeley represented Sekisui TA .
Sekisui TA bought its parcel and is set to be a neighbor with Anaheim-based Evangelical Christian Credit Union, which paid $11.4 million for 17.5 acres for a new planned 300,000-square-foot office campus. CB Richard Ellis has five acres left to sell in the area.
Sekisui TA’s new site has 30,000 square feet for office space and the rest for making and distributing its products: filmic acrylic carton sealing tape and accessories. The company says it is the largest manufacturer of water-based acrylic packing tape.
Sekisui TA, which stands for tapes and adhesives, began as TA Industries in 1976. In 1991, Tokyo-based Sekisui Chemical, one of TA Industries largest customers, bought the company for $7 million. Sekisui TA also has a 94,000-square-foot facility in Rogersville, Tenn. It expanded there in 1996 and now has 40 to 60 employees there serving Midwest and East Coast clients.
Sekisui Chemical was selling its own tape and TA Industries products in Japan, Chen said. Sekisui TA still exports to Japan, he said, as well as to Latin America.
“We also sell specialty products for the Mexican market,” he said, including lamination for refrigerated products, including the clear film on cardboard half-gallon containers of milk and orange juice.
Costa Mesa-based Snyder Langston is constructing the new building, which is half done, according to project manager Jim McCown. De Revere & Associates of Newport Beach is the architect.
“It’s a special design for our products, more efficiency and future growth,” Chen said.
Construction began in September with a ribbon cutting in October. The site includes a park and sculpture that resulted from negotiations between the city and Sekisui TA.
“The city of Brea is very demanding,” Chen said. “They require more work than other cities.”
Sekisui TA is paying a city art fee and building a retaining wall on the north side of the parcel per discussions with the city, he said. The company also has made architectural changes and met a city requirement that buildings be no more than 35% of total land. Chen said most companies look for a 50-50 split. Sekisui TA’s structures will sit on 30%.
But Chen said he likes the city’s stability, freeway location and available land.
“We think they are on the right track,” he said.
Stephen J. Wilson, vice president of marketing for Sekisui TA, said the company’s automated manufacturing,including a new coater and a machine, the STA F2000, that builds 15 cartons a minute,runs 24 hours a day. Employees work three shifts.
In a business like packing tape, stability is the norm. Still, Wilson said the company is in the industry’s top five nationally and adding new products,hand-tearable tape, for one. 3M Co. is the industry’s powerhouse, but Chen says it’s not as active in Sekisui TA’s big segment,water-based tapes where no solvents are used in the product.
Most of the company’s sales are to other manufacturing and shipping companies, he said. n
