Each year, Plastics News gathers operational data on plastic processors for our six North American Rankings.
Over 1,300 injection molders, rotational molders, thermoformers, extruders and blow molders are included. From that list we grabbed those for which we were provided a date founded, here are the highlights from the 352 results.
Some historical trivia from Editor Don Loepp: Pro Molding Corp. is considered the first U.S. plastic molder, it was founded in 1847. It was also known as Pro Brush Corp. and Florence Manufacturing Co.
Terry Minnick, who is currently chairman of plastics M&A firm MBS, used to be president at Pro Corp., so that’s one of the last remaining industry connections to the oldest U.S. molder. He sold the company in the late 1990s, eventually it was sold to Lenco Inc., which moved production to Nebraska, and stopped using the Pro Corp. name in 2007.
If you trace the history of Pro, you’d find that the surviving company today is Commercial Plastics of Mundelein, Ill., a company we still write about from time to time.
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