FAIRMONT – Depending upon your generation, you knew the sprawling plant that made aluminum products on Speedway Avenue either as Alcan or Novelis, the two principals that kept the place going for 100 years during their combined tenures of ownership.
The plant had sat vacant for several months after Novelis shut down in March 2025, but on Monday – a day before the anniversary of that news – the City of Fairmont had an announcement of its own to share.
Kibar Americas, a Turkish firm that does a global business in the above industry, purchased the plant, the city said.
Details of the transaction including the possibility of callbacks of now-former Novelis employees, weren’t immediately known, however.
Around 185 workers lost their jobs after last year’s drawdown.
When the plant began its first life as an Alcan subsidiary, Fairmont was very much a factory town, with aforementioned Speedway Avenue serving as a main artery in the enterprise.
Alcan’s neighbors on the bustling thoroughfare included an Owen-Illinois bottling plant and S.M. Kisner and Sons, a family-owned operation that did a brisk trade in sheet metal and related products.
The plant wasn’t empty for long after Alcan padlocked the gates in 2002. Novelis purchased it quickly – and brought it back online quickly.
Now, the new owners want to give nods both to the history and work ethic of north-central West Virginia.
“This is an exciting step for our company,” said Atilla Cetinel, the COO of Kibar Americas.
“We see tremendous potential in the people, the community and the state’s long history of manufacturing excellence,” the COO continued.
Call that long history of civic tenacity too, Mayor Anne Bolyard said.
“Our residents have proven their resiliency time and time again, and in this circumstance, I’m positive that resiliency is what made this deal attractive,” she said. “My statement from a year ago remains true: Now, more than ever, we must band together, continue our investments in our community and charge ahead.”
City Manager Travis Blosser seconded that and called the deal a win for “Team Fairmont,” as he put it.
“News like this only happens when we have a comprehensive approach to community development,” Blosser said.
“That requires buy-in from all parties involved – whether they be Mon Power, the West Virginia Division of Highways or our local developers.”
