San Antonio-based company Xpel is planning a $110 million expansion at home and abroad.
The company makes protective films for vehicle paint and windows and it plans on growing its manufacturing capabilities.
Xpel is purchasing the Eastside facility it currently leases near U.S. Interstate 35. The company also bought an existing factory in China, north of Shanghai, said CEO Ryan Pape, its first foray into manufacturing abroad.
“We’ve done a very exhaustive search on how best to expand our footprint to accommodate the manufacturing pieces that we want to in-source, and we ended up buying the site that we currently lease,” Pape said.
“In the case of China, to be really competitive in China, you need to produce products made in China for China, and so that’s really what acquiring manufacturing there does for us, more so than manufacturing products in China to bring to the US,” he added.
Xpel makes products and offers installation for a thin, clear film that protects paint from chipping or scratching. Pape said the company has expanded from car enthusiasts and after-market purchasers to work with car dealerships and manufacturers directly.
Xpel has around 1,200 employees, 350 of which are in San Antonio. Pape anticipates that the local workforce will grow.
Pape says they have plans to integrate the factory near Shanghai over the next six months and scale up operations in San Antonio over the next 12 to 18 months.
According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the purchase of the 430,000-square-foot I-35 site will cost $60.4 million and Xpel is using a $44.8 million loan from PNC Bank.
Pape said he was unsure how many new workers would be added, but Xpel plans to hire for a combination of manufacturing, engineering and logistics positions.
“We’ll be adding a range of folks specific to this project. We think material handling and equipment operators and some expansion to our engineering team,” Pape said. “We haven’t gone into more specifics.”
Pape said the project was unrelated to tariffs. President Donald Trump kicked off a global trade war when he stepped into office, including tariffs on imports and exports that, in some cases, grew over 100%.
Xpel is paying attention to market conditions and tariffs, but has been able to manage those changes without impacting customers, Pape said.
“You might look at a project like this and think that it’s a response to the tariff regime, or things that have been happening, and really it’s not for us,” Pape said “It’s really more about what insourcing does for our company, which is the speed of innovation: being able to move faster when you control the pieces and be more responsive to what our customers want.”
Pape said factories in China and the U.S. would make products for those markets. North America is Xpel’s largest market, while revenues in China have grown from $2.6 million at the beginning of 2023 to more than $17 million at the start of this year.
Xpel isn’t the only manufacturer to boost its manufacturing footprint in San Antonio.
High tariffs drove JCB to expand its Southside factory . Toyota Texas officials have said tariffs have not effected production, but the company has added rear axle production alongside its truck-making plant and could bring in a whole new assembly line .
