Ditech Testing advances in US, Canadian markets
Ditech Testing, which refurbishes cylinders and tanks for the propane industry, has several expansion plans over the next few years.
Ditech, based in New Brunswick, Canada, opened its newest manufacturing facility this past December in Lewisburg, Tenn. Although the company launched in 1997 serving mostly the Canadian market, Jason Gildart, vice president and co-owner of Ditech, says it now does more business in the United States.
“We tried expanding into the U.S. in our early years, but it was unknown territory to us for a time,” Gildart says. “But after going to the Southeastern Expo a couple times, people kept asking us if we had a facility in the South, which got us thinking about expansion. And once the U.S. market started to bounce back after the recession in 2008, we knew we wanted to trek out into that market.”
Gildart says Ditech’s New Brunswick location is capable of serving the northeastern U.S. market. He adds that having a location in Tennessee allows the company to branch into the midwestern, eastern and southern U.S. The company’s Lewisburg facility measures about 136,000 square feet, almost double the size of the New Brunswick facility.
Gildart says Ditech has plans to add facilities in the Northwest and Southwest over the next two years. He says a facility will open in 2016 in Alberta, Canada, just north of Montana. In two years, he says the company will add a facility in Salt Lake City or Reno, Nev.
“We want to add those facilities so we can reach a 1,000-mile radius of customers from all over the U.S. and Canada,” he says. “We realize it’s going to be hard to expand so quick, but we see opportunities in the United States and Canada.”