This week we publish the second part of our annual ranking of North American injection molders.
The June 17 issue ranked the top 100 companies. This issue includes data for 498 companies with sales from $78 million and below.
The total sales for this list is $41.8 billion. That's up 2.7 percent over last year's report and marks a third straight year of gains in the average sales per company. And at $71.9 million, it's 10 percent higher than 5 years ago.
Our listing of smaller firms makes up about 22 percent of the total dollars, but 83 percent of the total count. It's a mountain range of details to investigate and every bit matters when counting up sales, employees and plants.
Occasionally these figures are finalized after my research deadline has past. Our top listed company this week is custom molder Plastech Corp. of Rush City, Minn., coming in at $82.6 million. It would have made the cut off for last week's top 100.
In other numbers, the full ranking has 1,240 plant locations with Michigan towering above all with nearly a quarter of that total. Illinois and Wisconsin follow close behind. Some 43 percent of the total presses reported fall in the tonnage range of 100-349 tons. Industrial is the top end market and polypropylene takes the top spot in material used.
Typically we highlight the top movers and not the biggest declines, but it's worth noting some of these changes when they are big news. As mentioned last week, Tupperware Brands Corp. closed its only U.S. manufacturing plant in South Carolina. Wirthwein US is laying off about half its workers in New Bern, N.C. The plant is now dedicated to serving one home appliance manufacturer in Europe. Westmoreland Plastics Co. filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2023.
In other news, Providien, as part of Carlisle Interconnect Technologies division, was sold to Amphenol Corp. in May.
I'll finish with the special mentions below, having tallied up the full ranking already. Speaking of long hours, my dog jumped ship and left my office during this ranking. She spends nearly all day on the balcony, refusing to skip the sunshine. 'Hey Berk, make room, the injection molders list is done!'
