MINNEAPOLIS - Black Hawk Holdings Inc. has changed its name to Eagle Pacific Industries Inc. The new name incorporates the names of the Minneapolis company's two plastics holdings: Eagle Plastics Inc. and Pacific Plastics Inc. Those concerns give Eagle Pacific total annual sales of about $64 million in extruded PVC pipe and polyethylene tubing products.
Pacific Plastics is the firm's second buy; it closed that deal July 10 for $7.5 million and the assumption of a small, undisclosed debt, according to Bill Spell, president and chief operating officer of Eagle Pacific.
Eagle Pacific owns 91 percent of Hastings, Neb.-based Eagle Plastics, which it acquired Dec. 17, 1993; Eagle Plastics' founders Larry Schnase and Peter Konen own the rest. The men also will head up Pacific Plastics - Schnase as president and chief executive officer, Konen as executive vice president.
Eagle Pacific's stock will be traded on Nasdaq under the symbol EPII.
Ultra Pac entering S. America via Chile
MINNEAPOLIS - Packaging maker Ultra Pac is expanding into South America to make plastic clamshells and other products.
The Minneapolis thermoformer said it has agreed with an undisclosed Chilean company to form Ultra Pac Sud America, a manufacturing joint venture. No details were available.
Ultra Pac Sud America said it will make one of Ultra Pac's clamshells initially, and hopes to expand throughout South America. Ultra Pac will own 49 percent of the joint venture. A definitive deal is expected in two weeks.
Bryce advances Memphis consolidation
MEMPHIS, TENN. - Flexible snack packaging maker Bryce Corp. is continuing a consolidation effort to focus most of its manufacturing in Memphis.
Tom Williams, senior vice president for human relations and organizational development for the Memphis-based packaging converter, said employees and equipment were transferred in July from Bryce's Delp Street plant in Memphis to its plant on South Parkway.
``This will finish up a consolidation we began about a year ago,'' he said. ``We have moved equipment and employees from our plant in Buffalo, N.Y., and from our Dallas location into Memphis.'' The Dallas and Buffalo plants were closed.
He emphasized that the Delp Street plant will not close. Instead, its space will be occupied by Johnson Bryce Inc. Johnson Bryce is a joint venture of Bryce Corp. and Robert Johnson, which makes flexible packaging for Frito-Lay Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co.
Bryce makes oriented polypropylene and laminated flexible packaging for snack foods and candy, as well as wax coatings at the South Parkway and Searcy, Ark., facilities. The products made by Johnson Bryce do not compete with Bryce Corp. products, Williams said.
Bryce's estimated fiscal 1995 sales were $250 million.
Fremont Plastic moves to larger plant
FREMONT, OHIO - Fremont Plastic Molds Inc., a Fremont manufacturer of custom tooling for industrial blow molding, has moved into a larger manufacturing facility and plans to double its size next year.
President Martin Cass said the company moved from its 10,000-square-foot location in Fremont to a new, 13,000-square-foot industrial park site in June. An anticipated increase in business will allow the firm to boost the facility's size to 26,000-square-feet next year, Cass said. The new space will enable the company to bring in-house some of the work it has sent to outside firms, Cass said.
Fremont Plastic Molds claims to be one of the largest makers of coextrusion blow molds for automotive fuel tanks in North America. Cass projects 1995 sales of $8 million.
Ampacet adds two production lines
CARTERSVILLE, GA. - Ampacet Corp. said it has installed two new production lines at its Cartersville plant, putting it in a position to provide additives for new polymers when those polymers hit the market.
The Tarrytown, N.Y., company said it invested $17.5 million in the new lines. The company's new colorant lines are designed for advanced materials. Both Pomini lines are computer controlled and operated and have combined capacity to produce 55 million pounds of concentrates a year.
One line is designed to produce black concentrates based on engineering thermoplastics, such as nylon and thermoplastic polyesters. The second line is designed as a high-capacity line dedicated to producing white concentrates and additives for polyethylene and polypropylene.
Ampacet also said it has 19 new additives and color concentrates for metallocene resins.
