TAMPA, FL  – Door and building products manufacturer Masonite International says it will invest $14 million to update its door production plant in Denmark, SC with a "next-generation" automated interior door production line and infrastructure.

The Denmark facility manufactures residential interior doors for its Southeast customers, including the Florida market. The plant is also close to Masonite's Yulee, FL door fabrication plant that pre-hangs doors for  Southeast retail customers.

Masonite said it received economic assistance and support from the South Carolina Department of Commerce and Bamberg County, and from the state’s Regional Infrastructure Fund, among other incentives to expand operations in the Denmark facility. "We are committed to investing in innovative manufacturing and product technologies," said Fred Lynch, Masonite's  CEO. "We want to make those investments in communities where we have cooperative relationships with regional and local government."

Masonite, which acquired the plant in October, 2010 from Lifetime Doors Inc., said it expects to employ up to 200 within the next five years, when the new technology is fully installed. Currently Masonite says it is in the planning and engineering phase of the door production line. It expects the new system  to be operational by early 2013, subject to finalizing definitive agreements with the South Carolina Coordinating Council for Economic Development and Bamberg County, SC.

Mike Fout, Masonite VP Operations for the Interior Door Division, cited the state's support in advancing the door plant expansion, "especially the education and training component." Denmark Technical College is developing a curriculum to train current and future employees of the Denmark facility, working with the state's readySC workforce training program, a division of the SC Technical College System.