A corporate manufacturer closed the doors on its Terre Haute location back in 2014. At that time, they vowed the facility would not stay closed forever. On Wednesday they celebrated fulfilling that promise.

60 much-needed jobs are back on-line at Allura. The company is filling those spots with a combination of employees who are new to Allura and ones who are taking back what was once theirs.

When Allura closed their doors in 2014 it wasn’t for good.

“We knew that someday, not very far away, we’re going to be re-opening,” says Jessica Navascues, Allura CEO.

Mayor Duke Bennett says it was a disappointing day four years ago which made Wednesday’s celebration that much sweeter.

“And then now when you look today with a parking lot full of cars, and a variety of people at work in here, and the manufacturing is started again, that bodes well for all of us,” says Terre Haute Mayor, Duke Bennett.

“So it took us a year, nearly a year from the time we decided we’re going to flip the switch back on, to this day,” says Navascues.

Although the name may be the same, Allura has changed quite a bit since it last operated in Terre Haute.

“We changed our product, we changed our brand, we grew, our go to market strategy is different, we’re much more aggressive,” says Navascues. The local plant is making fiber cement for the home building industry.

Allura’s CEO says she knew the company would come back, it was all about waiting for the right moment, “well the big change is being that the economy is stronger. We’ve been doing a great job, so once we said the market is ready for us to restart Terre Haute.”

The manufacturer is now fully up and running and already setting goals for the future to expand.

Mayor Bennett says, “it just really is a good feeling that we have got a manufacturer, a new manufacturer if you will, in the Industrial Park that’s going to serve a big part portion of the United States using local people.” 

This is the only Allura plant in Indiana and in fact, it is the largest Allura plant in the United States both in terms of size (438,000 square-feet) and amount of product manufactured.