CRESSONA, PA -- St. Martin America, an assembler of melamine plywood frameless cabinets with Chinese roots, held a grand opening last month.

The company, which began operations in late spring at the former Cressona Knit factory, is owned by Peter Li, who also owns wood product manufacturing companies in Shanghai, China. The plant services the northeastern seaboard, according to the Republican Herald.

The newspaper said the company envisions the plant as a prototype for poetntial develpoment of additional facilities in other U.S. cities to expand into new markets.

Bill Young, president of St. Martin Cabinetry, told the newspaper,"Frameless is only about 10 percent of the market but it is a growing market in the U.S. and it's a market that is kind of cosmopolitan. People like the clean look that it offers."

The company's 60,000-square-foot warehouse can inventory components imported from China for more than 2,000 cabinets. The facility also features a showroom and areas for assembling and clamping the dowel-constructed cabinets.

St. Martin exhibited at the 2011 Kitchen Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas.