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Free Form Factory Limited which makes foam building products, expects to increase its warehouse capacity by one-third to 30,000 square foot by February.

The investment represents confidence by local and overseas investors in building Jamaica’s construction industry. The company said  it needs the additional warehouse space to hold new and existing products along with machinery. The warehouse expansion is also part of wider plans to expand the company’s products through a joint venture with a US based producer of insulated concrete blocks.

“We are going to produce insulated concrete form (ICF) blocks for a client in the Caribbean,” said Keith Edwards principal of the company which began in 1992 then expanded into supplying industrial foam in 2002. Today, the company describes itself as the sole manufacturer  of Expandable Polystyrene (EPS) foam products in Jamaica.
The proposed joint venture partner, will utilize the local operations to produce ICF blocks in Jamaica at a cheaper rate than in US and ship to countries including Cayman, Bonaire, Turks & Caicos, St. Vincent, and Cuba to name a few.

“The increased warehouse space will facilitate this joint venture expansion,” he said. It also needs the space to hold more foam for building products it sells to the hotel sector. The company supplies EPS to meet the increased demand for concrete EPS structures in the hotel sector.

In 1992, Free Form Factory became the first business in Jamaica to manufacture bean bags through its sister company, Curved Space Limited. Ten years later, Free Form moved into the production of EPS, a lightweight plastic made up of small, interconnected beads, and the base material used to fill bean bags. Following that the company entered the construction industry, utilizing a cost-effective, EPS building system, and providing EPS materials for property development and road rehabilitation.