EATONTOWN, N.J. - PVC Container Corp. followed one of its largest customers to Walterboro, S.C., and opened a $5.5 million plant last month. The 61,000-square-foot plant on 8.8 acres will employ 60 and have the capacity to make 60 million bottles a year when it reaches full production. The company expects it to have annual sales of $10 million to $15 million. PVC Container reported blow molding sales of $43 million last year.
This is the fourth PVC Container plant. Other plants are in Paris, Ill.; Manchester, Pa.; and Eatontown. The company followed American Bottling & Beverage, a division of Weider Nutrition Group in Long Island, N.Y., to Walterboro.
``This new plant represents the continuation of PVC Container's strategy of expanding its plastic bottle business regionally in several key served markets,'' President and Chief Executive Officer Phillip Friedman said in a press release.
PVC Container also had considered sites in Georgia and North Carolina. However, the tax incentives offered by South Carolina as well as a state-run training program impressed the firm. The Southeast accounted for 12.6 percent of PVC Container's sales. The firm hopes the new plant will boost sales in that region.
Publicly held PVC Container is 35th in Plastics News' ranking of North American blow molders. It makes beverage bottles, chemical containers and containers for the personal-care and medical industries.