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In response to growing demand for its leading edge transmission and distribution poles, RS Technologies Inc. (RS; Tilbury, Ontario, Canada) announced on April 23 that it has entered a new credit agreement enabling the purchase of a 237,000-square-foot production facility in St. George, Utah, U.S. The agreement, made with subsidiary RS Utility Structures Inc. and JPMorgan Chase Bank, will also allow the company to purchase capital equipment to increase its production capacity of its composite utility poles, which it says are ultra-resilient, reliable and environmentally sustainable.

Concurrent with closing of the credit agreement, the company closed the purchase of the Utah facility from Scannell Properties #361 LLC. As part of its business plan to serve a greater number of utilities in the U.S. and worldwide, RS intends to further build out the Utah facility through the purchase, installation and commissioning of proprietary equipment for production of the company’s poles and utility structures. RS’s new production capacity in Utah will be incremental to capacity located at its existing Canadian operation in Tilbury, Ontario and will be in closer proximity to utilities located in the western United States and Canada, RS says.

“RS is excited about establishing its operations in Utah to supply more high-performance poles and structures to the utility market,” says Howard Elliott, president and CEO of RS. “The advantages of using an engineered product that excels in increasingly complex and challenging circumstances are becoming more apparent. Unpredictable and violent weather conditions coupled with rising value placed on the environmental sustainability of a product are leading ESG-oriented utilities to consider a true alternative to yesterday's wood poles.”