South Bend, Ind.-based A to Z Plastics, a custom fabricating job shop, will be moving to a larger facility within South Bend. President Kathy Pask said the firm is wrapping up the loan application and hopes to break ground for the 10,000-square-foot plant this fall. About $1 million will be invested in equipment and the facility, and 10 employees will be added. The building will be on three acres with room to expand in the future.
Pask started A to Z in 1990. Its current facility is a 4,000-square-foot building with four employees.
``We've had so many people ask us to do things for them and with our limited capacity we needed to expand,'' Pask said. ``In fact, some customers are waiting for us to move to have us manufacture their specific things.''
As a custom job shop, Pask likens the business to a plastics grocery store. A to Z distributes sheet, rod, tube and foam. And though the company does not work with raw materials, it will cut material to length, design parts, or take shapes and produce a product from a drawing.
Some customers have particular blueprints and parts that A to Z manufactures repeatedly. Other customers come in with a different need each time, Pask said. With the move, A to Z also will begin offering an extensive research and consulting service.
``That's where we got the name; we supply all materials from a to z,'' Pask said. ``We also offer services from a to z.''
She described the plant as a basic machine shop with saws, bending machines, routers and mills. The new facility also will have water jet cutting and five or six presses for plastic welding.
``The Midwest region is so viable; it's fraught with opportunity,'' she said.
