Ohio thermoformer Wurm's Woodworking buys Creative Plastics

Keith Korn, senior vice president of Creative Plastics, and Randy Korn, operations vice president, will remain to run the factory in Jackson Center. They continue to hold a minority ownership stake.

The company is now called Creative Plastics International.

Officials of Wurm’s Woodworking said buying Creative brings the company access to high-volume rotary forming and roll-fed in-line forming.

“This capability fits very nicely into our strategy to be cost effective on all sized volume runs,” said Rick Wurm, vice president.

Keith Korn said both companies will benefit from deal. “It will place Creative Plastics in a better position to focus on core manufacturing activities, while offering access to sheet-fed thermoforming,” he said.

Both companies have colorful histories.

Wurm’s Woodworking was founded in 1947 by John Wurm as a construction company and retail lumberyard. In the 1950s, the company moved into making wood component parts, mainly as a supplier to the box spring and mattress companies located in central and northern Ohio.

The company in the 1960s began supplying local boat manufacturers with cut-to-size plywood parts for hulls and decks, then added seating components. Valerie (Wurm) Sanderson, corporate treasurer, said that in the 1980s, customers began to switch from wood to plastic components, prompting Wurm’s Woodworking to expand into thermoforming.

Today, the plastics operations of Wurm’s Woodworking include thermoforming, vacuum forming of flexible vinyl covers used for seating, and foil membrane press technology to do three-dimensional laminating and forming. The company continues its woodworking tradition, as a precision wood fabricator.

At Creative Plastics, the Korn family gained fame in 1911 when brothers Milton and Ed Korn — inspired by the Wright brothers’ pioneering flight — built an airplane that successfully flew in 1911. They built Ohio’s first airport on the Korn family farm.

According to a company history, Creative Plastics was founded by Wayne Korn in 1968 on the original site of Korn Field. In its early days, the plastics company vacuum formed components used by a nearby travel trailer manufacturer.

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