Last November, Houston-based United Guar, LLC., announced plans to locate its first U.S. guar refinery in Altus, Oklahoma. A groundbreaking was held in March 2015 at the Eastside Industrial Park where the refinery will be located.
“It took us one visit here to decide this is the place we wanted to be and there is nowhere else in the U.S. right now that we’d rather be shoveling dirt than right here in Altus. Thank you so much for having us and for the very warm welcome,” said Aamer Sarfraz, Founder and CEO of United Guar, LLC.
The location decision is attributed to the cooperation and involvement between multiple entities, including the Economic Development Corp., Altus City Council, Altus Chamber of Commerce, Oklahoma Department of Commerce, Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance and the Southwest Technology Center.
“All of those entities are working together to move this community forward. I think that this is really a testament to what Oklahoma can do for business and really even further than that, what Altus can do for business because there are so many things in place that are coming together here to help make things like this happen,” said Brian Bush, Economic Development Corp. CEO.
United Guar was formed in 2012 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Guar has been grown on land suitable for cotton and similar crops for half a century on primarily semi-arid land in Texas and Oklahoma. The Altus processing facility is planned to be fully operational in the fall of this year. The initial facility will take up approximately 5,000 square feet, with 1,500 for administrative operations.
“Altus has all the right infrastructure for our business, our guar farmers are within a reasonable radius to here and our customers are within a reasonable radius to here. We want this to be the epicenter for Guar processing in the United States, very much of the hub of Guar, not just for this plant but for many more to come,” said Sarfraz.
