Vita Nonwovens, a producer of nonwovens used in automotive, filtration, medical and mattress applications, is adding a new high capacity nonwoven production line to complement its existing line in Fort Wayne, IN. The new equipment will be installed in February 2008 at a cost of just under $7 million and is expected to be fully operational the later half of 2008. The expansion will reportedly add 22 jobs to the operation.

“Vita Nonwovens is looking to expand its market and product potential while at the same time taking advantage of our existing Fort Wayne facility to ease capacity constraints elsewhere in our system,” said Jason Johnson, vice president of operations for Vita Nonwovens. “We started production here in 2003 and it has always been our intention to grow our presence in Northeast Indiana when the time was right. We believe that time has come.”

Vita Nonwovens is part of The Vita Group, a private company owned by TPG, Inc. since 2005. In addition to the Indiana operation, Vita Nonwovens includes operations in High Point, NC and San Antonio, TX in North America as well as sister company Libeltex, which has operations in France, Sweden and Belgium. In 2006, the company reported nonwovens sales of $162 million, reflecting a slight drop caused by the closure of Vita’s U.K. subsidiaries.