A company headquartered in Wilmington is growing again in a neighboring state.

PolyQuest, distributor of PET resins and manufacturer of recycled PET resins, announced this week the expansion of its facility in Darlington, South Carolina.

PET stands for polyethylene terephthalate, a lightweight plastic belonging to the polyester family, according to PETRA, the PET Resin Association.

Established in 2004, PolyQuest's Darlington facility is the company’s flagship distribution and recycling location, according to a news release. 

“Our business continues to grow at exponential levels, both organically in virgin PET and rPET as well as via access to new resins such as polypropylene and polyethylene,” said Tod Durst, president of PolyQuest, in the release. “With demand for our products at the highest level we have experienced in our company’s history and limited available supply, our customers are facing extended lead times, which predicates that we hold higher levels of safety stock to service their needs.

"That factor, coupled with the continued push for recycled plastic content from brand owners and converters alike, made our expansion in Darlington a logical one."

The expansion will include the addition of four new buildings totaling 225,000 square feet, two rail spurs, enhanced material handling capabilities and new machinery to process an incremental volume of recycled PET and other thermoplastics, the news release stated.

According to the release, PolyQuest is adding 15 new jobs at the Darlington site with plans for more.

Ryan Nettles, vice president of operations for PolyQuest and the site’s leader, said in the release, “We have come a very long way in the past 17 years as we systematically grew our footprint in Darlington to accommodate the company’s growth in many directions. Darlington and the surrounding areas provide us with a very robust labor force to draw from, which is critical to our sustained success.”

Construction has begun at the site with an anticipated completion date of February, the release stated.

“Once this expansion is complete, our Darlington facility will have 525,000 square feet, the capacity to hold 38 rail cars, 160 million pounds of recycled plastic processing capacity, approximately 100 employees, and over $50 million invested since 2004,” Nettles said in the release. “PolyQuest’s goal remains to be the value-added supplier of PET, PP, and recycled PET products to our customers and the expansion at Darlington enhances our ability to achieve that goal.”

In addition to its Wilmington headquarters and South Carolina facility, PolyQuest has a location in Farmingdale, New York, and an office in Austria.