Fiber-Tech Industries Inc., a Spokane-based manufacturer of fiberglass-reinforced plywood panels for the transportation industry, is expanding.


The company has leased an additional 40,000 square feet of industrial space in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park, at 3808 N. Sullivan, in the Spokane Valley, and plans to add 21 workers there in the next month, says Bob Pfeifer, its vice president of operations. The additional square footage gives the company a total of 120,000 square feet of floor space at the industrial park, Pfeifer says. The beefed-up work force will give Fiber-Tech a total of 116 employees, he says.


Fiber-Techs expansion is due primarily to a surge in sales, Pfeifer says. He declines to disclose the companys annual revenues, but says sales this year are on course to increase 32 percent compared with last year.


Fiber-Tech sells its panels to truck and trailer companies nationwide and ships 90 percent of the panels it manufactures to companies in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. Its panels are used as sidewalls on many U-Haul and Ryder rental moving trucks, Pfeifer says. Locally, it sells its panels to Reliance Trailer Co. LLC, a West Plains company that makes over-the-road truck trailers.