ST. THOMAS, Ontario — Expansion of the Element5 manufacturing plant in St. Thomas, has firmly established the nine-year-old company as one of North America’s leaders in the design, fabrication and assembly of contemporary mass timber structures. Founded in 2015 in Ripon, Quebec, Element5 built a 130,000 square foot St. Thomas facility in 2020 on 40 acres of land in the city’s north end. It generates about 50,000 cubic meters of cross-laminated timber (CLT) a year. Work on the St. Thomas expansion started in 2023 and increases the Element5 footprint to over 350,000 square feet, set to produce another 50,000 cubic meters of glulam a year starting in 2025. …In February, The Hasslacher Group, of Austria, made a strategic investment in Element5 to fuel growth in the North American market and support the St. Thomas expansion. Element5 now calls St. Thomas its headquarters. Element5 recorded 2023 sales of about $30 million and the company is forecasting $40 million in 2024, and $100 million in 2030.