Poly-Seal Corp. has closed one of its Baltimore injection molding plants, merging operations into a newer operation nearby. The company expects to lay off about 45 employees and sell the Shannan Drive plant.
The transfer of equipment and employees to the Holabird Industrial Park plant will be complete within the next couple of months, said Karl Mauck, marketing manager.
``That plant's been upgraded and added on to; it's much more spacious,'' he said. ``The Shannan plant is aged, 25 years old, and is not in good environmental condition. By that I mean that it does not have air conditioning or railroad siding.''
About 100 employees will be transferred from the Shannan facility to the 250,000-square-foot Holabird plant. The Holabird plant employs 450.
``We're just in a very competitive market,'' said President William Herdrich. ``We're just trying to keep costs down.''
``I don't think [the move] will affect production capacity at all,'' Mauck said.
Poly-Seal plans to sell the 90,000-square-foot Shannan plant.
``It may or may not be sold to another plastics manufacturer, just whoever can use it,'' Mauck added. ``But we won't finalize any deals until we have completely transferred everything.''
Poly-Seal has more than 70 injection presses as well as compression and lining machinery. Its biggest business is injection molding polypropylene caps, in sizes ranging from eight to 120 millimeters. The firm also molds polyethylene nasal spray plugs and laundry detergent cups.
The company compression molds phenolic and urea resins.
Last year the firm reported sales of $50 million, down from $58 million the year before. Poly-Seal expects to introduce new products later this year.