Russell-Stanley Corp. will open a dual-purpose drum manufacturing and container recycling facility in Upper Macungie Township, Pa., near Allentown.
The plant will begin limited operations in May with equipment for blow molding plastic containers. The firm's Container Management Services division will run the plastic drum and intermediate bulk container recycling operations.
``We will start with the existing facility,'' which is 157,000 square feet, Robert Singleton, president and chief executive officer, said in a telephone interview. ``By mid-1999 we will expand to about 300,000 square feet.''
This is the first location for CMS outside its Simpsonville, S.C., headquarters. CMS leases drums and industrial bulk containers and provides on-demand delivery. When the containers are empty, CMS picks them up, cleans, inspects and tests them.
The co-located operations reduce freight costs by being closer to end users. CMS's operations will occupy a portion of the plant first. Manufacturing, with about six blow molding machines, gradually will build during six months.
Singleton would not disclose the amount invested in the facility, which will employ about 190. When the plant opens, the company plans to rationalize some unspecified, existing drum manufacturing.
In November, Russell-Stanley vaulted to first place among U.S. blow molded drum manufacturers when it bought Smurfit Packaging Corp. Russell-Stanley runs 13 plastic drum-manufacturing plants, three steel drum-making plants and two CMS locations. It reported blow molding sales for 1996 of $70.5 million, placing the company 25th in Plastics News' survey of North American blow molders.
Smurfit ranked 28th, with sales of $65 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 1996.
Russell-Stanley, based in Red Bank, N.J., blow molds high-molecular-weight, high density polyethylene products for the specialty chemical, lubricants and other processing industries. Its annual sales are about $300 million.
