showroom in 2012. “We’re focused on high added-value applications and niche applications.”
Nevertheless, as a sustainable design architect, Noble wanted to get his production costs low enough to eventually offer Ecor panels as a green alternative in the fiercely competitive global market for medium-density fiberboard (MDF) panels—a construction industry staple.
As part of that long-range plan, Noble founded an affiliated company in Zug, Switzerland, in March 2013 to focus on the European market. A month later, Noble Environmental Europe began construction of a new 15,000-square-foot Ecor factory in Kraljevo, Serbia. Noble initially self-funded NET, but it’s unclear how he’s managed to finance NET’s recent expansion. He told me in 2012 that he did not plan to seek venture capital, as the time required to build large-scale manufacturing “doesn’t easily fit the venture capital model for a quick exit.”
Now, with Envisage’s investment in NET, Noble plans to more than double the size of the Ecor factory in Serbia while making it run more efficiently. Like many private equity firms, Envisage specializes in improving the operational efficiencies of its portfolio companies, and Noble says that includes “a team of mechanical, production, and electrical engineers” who will be focused on reducing Ecor production costs.
As part of its Serbian plant expansion, NET says the Serbian government will provide a “substantial grant” to Noble Environmental Europe and will share in the costs of the plant expansion, but the company did not disclose any details. The Serbian government also agreed to collect agricultural waste from local farmers and provide the cellulosic waste to the Ecor factory.
As part of the investment, Noble said Envisage also agreed to help NET secure funding needed to build 10 Ecor factories throughout the United States over the next decade. He anticipates the first facility will be built in California, somewhere between Sacramento and Bakersfield, in the next year or two. The company’s U.S. production is currently done in Wisconsin under a contract with the Forest Products Laboratory.
“On our cost of production, we were at $4 a square foot at the Forest Products Laboratory, and that is now $2 a square foot,” Noble said. “In Serbia, it’s 30 cents a square foot, which is already below the cost of plywood.”
Noble added, “We feel very confident that we’ll achieve a paradigm shift in how these materials get made.”
