By purchasing a West Coast plant, Zeta Consumer Products Corp. gains easier access to the key California market for its Renew-brand recycled-plastic trash bags, plus its first injection molding capacity. Zeta purchased a plant in Emeryville, Calif., from Amcel Corp. of Watertown, Mass. Terms of the deal, announced April 8, were not disclosed.
Zeta President Raj Bal said the California factory has seven blown film lines and two injection molding machines, both with 650 tons of clamping force. The injection presses make disposable polypropylene and polystyrene cutlery, a new product line that Zeta will market with its existing line of thermoformed plates and cups made in its plant in Macomb, Ill.
Zeta officials plan to mold housewares, probably in time for display at the International Housewares Show in early 1996, Bal said. Zeta already exhibits its trash bags at the show.
Zeta ships its polyethylene Renew bags to California from Macomb. A high priority, Bal said, is equipping the Emeryville plant with a post-consumer plastic recycling line. Zeta is based in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J.
``Within a year we see significant expansion out West,'' Bal said.
California mandates the use of recycled materials in many consumer products.
``We're one of the few companies that meet all the requirements. We think that there's a major growth opportunity.''
Zeta bought the Renew bag line and the Illinois plant from Chelsea Industries Inc. in January 1994. Bal said Chelsea introduced Renew bags in 1989 - before recycled-content legislation. The bags are selling well nationwide, he said.
Zeta is a subsidiary of Sigma Plastics Group of Lyndhurst, N.J. Sigma also said April 18 that it has completed part of a major expansion in stretch film, first announced in November. The company has added a cast film line, made by Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. Inc. of Gloucester, Mass., to its Lyndhurst plant. Sigma also is adding 65,000 square feet for warehouse space at its Omega Plastics Corp. in Shelbyville, Ky.