EVANSVILLE, IND. - Plastics Corp. of America plans to consolidate two custom injection molding operations it acquired last year. The company will move its WKP division, now in Henderson, Ky., to Evansville where its Reliance unit is based, said general manager Larry Dean. Each unit molds for a range of consumer and industrial markets.
Dean said the consolidation will lower management and overhead costs. The company is laying off about 45 people, but plans to hire an equal number in Evansville.
Plastics Corp. is doubling Evansville's manufacturing space to 22,000 square feet to accommodate the Kentucky operation's 15 presses in the move scheduled for July or August. The firm added 6,000 square feet to Evansville's warehouse. Dean estimated the expansion and move will cost $650,000.
Plastics Corp. has 29 presses with clamping forces of 75-700 tons, Dean said. The two businesses it bought last fall had sales totaling about $6.5 million and 95 employees.
Dean said Plastics Corp. is privately held by undisclosed investors and was established in October to acquire Evansville-based Retampco Inc., now Plas-tics Corp.'s Reliance division. A month earlier the investors bought WKP Inc. of Henderson. One of WKP's former owners, Jim Kunkel, will continue with Plastics Corp. as director of operations.
Plastics Corp. mainly molds engineering resins. It will continue to use the Reliance name but will drop the WKP name after the consolidation.