The company bends and coats steel pipes for hydraulic tubing, primarily for agricultural and heavy construction equipment. The tubing is completed to the customer’s specifications.

Although a brand new start-up business, it was developed by the Borghi family that has similar plants in Bologna, Italy and the United Kingdom.

In addition, the family owns support plants in Italy that provide toolings, fittings and companion manufacturing. The Borghi name is known worldwide for excellence in plating.

Site requirements:

“The Borghi Group currently operates in Europe, and saw an opportunity to work for the U.S. operations of these companies,” said former Borghi spokesperson Susan A. Brown.

“The family is committed to global expansion and this is their first American plant,” said Brown. “Obviously, placing their first plant in the Midwest was appropriate for support to these companies.”

Site solution:

The company chose to locate in an 83,000-square-foot speculative building constructed by the Burlington Area Development Corporation.

Borghi added an additional 3,000 square feet to the office area. Only 40,000 square feet of the manufacturing space is currently used. The remaining 40,000 square feet is still in speculative building condition and will provide space for their first expansion.

The building was also designed so an additional 80,000 square feet can be added to the north as the business grows.

The West Burlington plant has state-of-the-art equipment. The bending and cutting machines are all computerized, making for very tight tolerances and excellent quality control.

“The zinc plating operation is what sets us apart”, said Brown. “The plating plant at West Burlington is new, designed especially for the building with innovative wastewater treatment, air quality control and a computerized operation.”

Recommendation:

“Having this building readily available in the location the Borghi Group needed was key to the final decision of plant placement,” Brown said. “Alliant Energy’s resources and financial backing were instrumental in the existence of this speculative building.

“In addition, Alliant Energy was very responsive to our energy needs, bringing in larger capacity pipeline for our gas consumption and helping to assure we were up and running on schedule,” said Brown.