One of the area’s oldest manufacturing companies still in business is expanding — across the border from Trenton into Hamilton.
Switlik Survival Products — previously known as the Switlik Parachute Company — has broken ground on a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 1325 East State Street. The new building will span the Trenton-Hamilton border, which required cooperation between the two municipalities in the planning stages.
The company credited Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora, Hamilton Mayor Jeff Martin, and Trenton City Councilman Joe Harrison with making the expansion possible in spite of the unusual location.
“I would like to express my gratitude to both municipalities for coming together and aiding us in this project which will ultimately provide the residents of Trenton and Hamilton with new job opportunities and help those employed continue succeeding. For 102 years, Switlik’s saving lives worldwide, providing jobs locally,” said Stanley Switlik II, the company’s chief executive officer, in a media release.
Scozzari Builders Inc. has been contracted to do construction, with ACT Engineers performing site work and design. Clark Caton Hintz architecture firm designed the building
The company says the addition will give Switlik much needed space to expand their current product offerings while allowing the company to develop new products. Established in 1920, Switlik Survival Products has been owned and operated by the Switlik family since 1920.
Chief operating officer Sarah Switlik says the expansion has been in the company’s plans for several years. “We’d outgrown our current facility. We’ve had a secondary facility (on another site) in Trenton, but we needed to be able to do more on this property,” she says.
When the opportunity came up to purchase some property on the Hamilton side of the facility, the company took it. “Because our property lives on top of the Hamilton-Trenton town line, the uniqueness of the project had it going slowly,” Switlik says. “Then everything came to a halt over Covid.”
After some of the dust had settled from the pandemic, the project still made sense for Switlik. “We need more manufacturing space in the same space, instead of separated,” Switlik says. “I think the movement of labor and materials across the parking lot instead of across town allows us to be much more flexible with how we set up our floor space.”
Known perhaps best for its parachutes, Switlik makes a variety of sewn and heat-sealed, inflatable safety and survival products. These products are used by the aviation, marine, and military markets.
Switlik also manufactures anti-exposure suits, airline life vests and life rafts, among other equipment. Switlik products are used by the U.S. Coast Guard, Army, Navy and Air Force.
Sarah Switlik says that being able to expand the current location, rather than moving, was always the best option because some of the approvals and certifications they have for their government contracts are site specific. A move would have required across-the-board requalification.
“This is a project that is as much a long-term view for the company as it is solidifying that we are here and we don’t plan to go anywhere,” Switlik says. “And the only way to do that is to be in a stable or growth position, and in order for us to grow, we had to do this expansion.”
She says that while the expansion isn’t being done specifically to enable Switlik to expand its product line, the company is always looking to develop new equipment. She says that Switlik is pushing more into the police, fire and search-and-rescue space lately, and expects the company to roll out some new life vest designs and new antiexposure and dry-suit lines over the next year to two years.
“We’re hoping this is a sign of the times, that we plan on being here we’re investing in our future in the Hamilton-Trenton area. Even though it was a unique process, we felt that Hamilton and Trenton worked well together and we’re appreciative that we were able to get this project across the line,” Switlik says.
For more information, visit www.switlik.com.
Sarah Switlik, COO, and Stanley Switlik II, CEO, at the September 29 groundbreaking ceremony for Switlik Survival Products’ expansion to East State Street in Hamilton.,
