Beacon Plastics Inc. entered mold making and added more mid-South injection molding capacity March 3 by acquiring Accurate Plastic Molding Inc.
Beacon of Greenville, S.C., paid for Accurate with an undisclosed amount of stock, according to Harry Ussery, a Beacon partner. The firm, in the Little Rock, Ark., suburb of Mabelvale, will help Beacon serve customers in central Arkansas and complements its Homer, La., molding facility.
``We have some common customers and [Accurate] brings us closer to the customers,'' Ussery said in a telephone interview.
Ussery expects to expand Accurate's captive and merchant mold-making business, although he provided no specific timetable. Accurate has room for injection molding expansion, but Ussery said Beacon now has no plan to buy more machinery for Mabelvale.
Accurate's 12 injection presses custom mold for automotive, recreational, spa, home entertainment and other markets. It had sales of $2 million for the year ended May 31, 1995—more recent figures were not available. It
is ISO 9001 certified.
Richard Crews, former Accurate owner and president, said he sold the company because a larger firm can expand it and allow it ``to reach its full potential.'' He acquired Accurate in 1987 when it mainly did mold building and was having financial difficulties. Crews said he will stay with Accurate to assist in the transition and then will move on to nonplastics business opportunities.
Beacon injection molds at Homer and does assembly and packaging in Greenville. The Accurate purchase boosts the press count of Beacon and its sister company Precision Southeast Inc. of Myrtle Beach, S.C., to 78. Beacon's 1996 sales were $8.5 million, including the Accurate operations. Precision logged sales of $18.6 million that year.
Beacon and Precision started expansion programs last fall to capitalize on growing demand for auto parts in the southern United States.