TORONTO - PVC Container Corp. is diversifying its plastics business by entering a specialty profile market through a joint venture with Edge Craft Ltd. of Mississauga, Ontario. The partners will begin producing PVC edge banding sometime this year at PVC Container's Eatontown, N.J., head-quarters.
Edge Craft Ltd. will ship one of its twin-screw extruders and downstream equipment to Eatontown, and the company will provide technical expertise to make the products used in office furniture, fixtures, household cabinets and other construction applications.
PVC Container will provide an undisclosed amount of space at its Eatontown facility.
Edge Craft USA Inc., equally held by the partners, will focus on the U.S. market and plans to expand the Mississauga firm's sales aggressively.
Edge Craft Ltd. will manufacture for the Canadian market and may continue to make some products for U.S. customers. Officials did not disclose how much equity each partner brings to the venture.
Phillip Friedman, PVC Container's president and chief executive officer, said the venture willcombine his firm's resin compounding experience with Edge Craft's processing technology. PVC Container produces plastic containers at three plants, and its Novatec Plastics & Chemicals Co. Inc. subsidiary makes PVC compounds and plastic alloys. Edge Craft Ltd. already is a Novatec customer.
Michael Bernath, Edge Craft Ltd.'s vice president of sales, said the venture will use a twin-screw extruder for high pro-ductivity. Edge Craft USA will run the line at 180 feet per minute.
Edge Craft Ltd. makes about 30 million feet per week of edge banding, Bernath said in a telephone interview. It has eight twin-screw and six single-screw production lines, which also have calendering and other downstream equipment. It employs about 60 in a 60,000-square-foot plant.
Bernath said the edge banding market is mature, with only a handful of major players. Edge Craft, established in 1981, specializes in solid, wood-grain, thick and decorative T-molding applications. In 1992 it began making wood veneer edge banding.
Peter Bousoulas is sole owner and president of Edge Craft Ltd. He also will serve as president of Edge Craft USA. Bernath would not disclose his firm's sales.
PVC Container, a publicly traded company, reported sales of $24.2 million for the six months ended Dec. 31, up about 45 percent from the same period in 1993.