Vertex officially certified for mass production

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — It looks like things should finally get rolling for a much-anticipated Wilmington employer.

Vertex Railcar Corporation announced that the company has achieved two foundational certifications from the Association of American Railroads (AAR). Following official site audits this fall, AAR representatives certified that the Vertex facility on Raleigh Street in Wilmington meets the AAR specification for Quality Assurance and certified the facility as a builder of new railcars.

The company says the facility certification is required for all suppliers to the rail industry and indicates that Vertex has the appropriate quality management system in place to mass-produce quality railcars. All manufacturers of freight cars must also receive certification to build cars, which indicates that Vertex construction processes and practices meet the appropriate specifications.

“This year was a big year for Vertex. It’s been a year of growth and opportunity,” Vertex CEO Donald Croteau said in a news release. “We transformed an abandoned manufacturing facility into a state-of-the-art railcar manufacturing operation, and produced our first railcars in North Carolina. We achieved our most critical goal for 2015—certification to proceed with mass production of freight cars at Vertex in Wilmington.”

Earlier this month, Vertex held a ribbon-cutting to debut some of the first cars it produced in the Port City.

Vertex says in the past 12 months, the company has entered into a joint partnership with the largest railcar manufacturer in the world, completed one of three production bays at its Wilmington facility, received two AAR certifications, hired nearly 200 people, built its first hopper cars and completed a rail spur to move completed cars out of the facility.

The company says it has orders for more than 3,000 cars and hopes to reach to optimize its hopper car manufacturing operation with the goal of producing three to four cars per day in early 2016 with an eventual goal of producing 8,000 cars per year. Hiring will also continue through the year. Vertex initially said it would hire about 1,300 people for the Wilmington plant. Croteau later said that number could be even higher.