APEX Block Corporation Releases Plan to Strategic Investors for Rollout of 11 U.S. Plants

ROSEBURG, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--APEX Block Corporation, a subsidiary of Lacuna Inc., has released its strategic business plan to investors unveiling its rollout of the next generation manufacturing facilities. APEX Block currently manufactures its unique product line of Lightweight Insulated Concrete Stay Form™ blocks made from a proprietary mix of cement, reclaimed polystyrene granules and polymers.

APEX’s first manufacturing facility in Phoenix, Ariz., began operations in 2006. The current facility is housed in a 42,444-square-foot facility with the capacity to produce 800,000 square feet of APEX-BLOCK™ annually, generating $2.8 million of revenue annually. Ernie Richards, Technical Adviser for APEX, was instrumental in identifying the areas for needed improvement of the existing line. Phil Bigler, Senior Vice President of Operations and I/T, came on board early this year. Phil has extensive background in manufacturing operations and provided the expertise to implement the improvements to the existing facility while overseeing that the new plants were designed for optimum efficiency and maximum production capacity. Comparatively with the successful and monumental achievements and efforts of Lacuna Inc.’s seasoned management team through production enhancements from their combined extensive research, industrial experience, and strategic partners' engineering efforts over the past three months, APEX-BLOCK™ Plant(s) will produce up to 15X more blocks annually out of their new custom-built 48,000-square-foot building, housing the first of the MP 180 and MPX 180 Series APEX-BLOCK™ plants. This is an increase in revenue generation of $23 million to $70 million a year per plant over the original APEX plant in Phoenix.

APEX has selected Roseburg, Ore., as its headquarters. Dale Siens, President and CEO of Lacuna Inc., announced that Roseburg is also the location selected for the official rollout of its first NEW Generation MP 180™ and MPX 180™ series plants. Construction is slated to begin the summer of 2010 with the plant to be fully operational by the fall of 2010 producing over 4,000 APEX-BLOCK™ per day scaling up to 8,000 blocks a day within 12 months. APEX plans to construct 11 new MP series Plants™ in the U.S. over the next 16 months to include both the fixed based plant and portable plant which can produce at the same high capacity as the fixed plant while also allowing the plant to be assembled/disassembled and shipped where needed for disaster recovery, etc. The expansion of APEX will create over 650 jobs across the nation. With the cost savings of utilizing the block in residential and light commercial construction, many skilled laborers will be back to work and customers and participants will be part of APEX’s goal of BUILD AMERICA™.

The company has a very experienced and seasoned new management team, “The APEX Strike Team,” that has an impressive track record of success in managing companies through periods of significant, sustained growth. Mary Gilbert, of Roseburg, Ore., has been with Lacuna Inc since its inception and has recently been promoted to Executive Vice President of the company overseeing the rapid expansion of the company as new members come on board and additional facilities are constructed. Mary has an extensive background in sales and marketing.

With the 11 plant rollout over the next 16 months, David Addy, Director of Corporate Development, has joined the team to manage the site selection and startup of each new facility. David brings a wealth of experience from the automotive industry in Detroit as well as several years in the building supply industry.

Along with the surge in domestic interest, there has been huge demand internationally for licensing agreements and plants. Lacuna Inc has brought in Brenda Gant, of Southern California, to head up International Relations. Brenda has a degree from UCLA in Latin American Studies and an MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management.

The scalable design utilized by APEX allows APEX to more than double the output capacity to meet expected demand. Given the operating economics of each facility, APEX plans to achieve revenues in excess of $200 million annually with the 11 plant buildout within three years.