An industry that just recently located to Dallas County is now in the beginning stages of an expansion. Wayne Vardaman, executive director for Selma & Dallas County Economic Development Authority, announced in February that Eovations, LLC was beginning production in town, producing a product that is the only one of its kind.

Eovations located to the former Louisiana Pacific building in the Craig Industrial Park area off of U.S. Highway 80, where they are spending more than $6 million to expand the facility by 18,000 square feet.

Eovations is a subsidiary of Universal Forest Products, a company that was just north of $2.1 billion in sales this past year, according to Eovations plant manager Matt Bera.

Bera said the short-term timeline for production lines, will be two lines running by sometime in December.

“We are happy to be here, we are making good progress,” Bera said. “We hope to have two lines in operation by end of December or first part of January, and in the next two years we hope to have a full, 10 production lines.”

He said that in the next two years, Eovations would provide 70 to 90 jobs, if not more. In the immediate future when the first two lines of production start in the fall, somewhere around 25 jobs will be available.

“More notices will be posted in the future about how and when people can apply for jobs,” Vardaman said. “End of September, beginning of October is when people can apply for jobs through AIDT with the state of Alabama.”

Mayor Evans noted that the announcement of Eovations is the third of its kind this year.

“We have Eovations, along with Castle Rock and Zilkha Biomass plants coming to the area this year.” Evans said. “Two of those, Eovations and Zilkha, are proprietary products and they are the only products of their kind and they are being produced right here in Selma.”

Eovations produces composite siding, made with no wood so that it can withstand salty air and freezing snow, Bera said. He explained the product is a mixture of polypropylene and calcium carbonate. Bera said Eovations located to Selma because of the infrastructure Craig Industrial Park offered, as well as the plant’s proximity to major outlets.

“The infrastructure here at this facility, both inbound and out, was a big push for us,” Bera said. “But the proximity to the southeast and the growing markets there were a big factor in locating the plant here.”

The new plant will host a combination of positions for skilled and unskilled workers in the coming months and will bring more than 90 jobs to the surrounding area.