Materials Science & Advanced Manufacturing

Manufacturing is alive and well in the Greater San Marcos.  Employment throughout the Rural Capital workforce is projected to grow by 25.5%, in contrast to a national decline of 3.9%.  Greater San Marcos provides the assets companies need to have a better opportunity of remaining competitive.  Access to markets, workforce, and innovation are just a few of the advantages Greater San Marcos offers to manufacturing companies

Texas State University- San Marcos provides numerous degrees and programs that focus on the Materials Science and Advanced Manufacturing sector. The University houses the Nanomaterial’s Application Center to enable collaboration and strategic partnerships between industrial and academic researchers and high technology entrepreneurs.  The University’s Science, Technology, and Research (STAR) Incubator will expand the partnership among the University, entrepreneurs, and manufacturing.

Additional programs at both the Universities of Texas at Austin and San Antonio, each of which are within 45 minutes of San Marcos, further complement the assets of the Greater San Marcos region.

One hundred and fourteen manufacturers are located in the Greater San Marcos region, including Heldenfels Enterprises, headquartered in San Marcos for over a decade. In that time, Heldenfels projects include expanding the north end zone of Kyle field (Home of the Texas A&M Aggies), providing all of the structural precast for Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros baseball team, and completing seating at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Other major manufacturers in the region include:

• Hadco, part of the Philips family, has operated a landscape lighting facility in San Marcos since 1997.  The company has undergone expansions over the past decade, which has nearly doubled its capacity;
• Butler manufacturing is a building-solutions company providing the design, manufacture, and marketing of metal building systems for commercial construction and employs nearly 70; and
• Thermon Engineering the only international heat tracing company completely dedicated to its industry. Since 1954, Thermon has concentrated its efforts exclusively on heat tracing, the external application of heat to pipes, tanks and instrumentation.  Thermon employs approximately 200 employees from the greater San Marcos workforce.