Plastic grocery bag maker Advance Polybag Inc. plans to expand its Oklahoma City plant and set up a new facility in California.
Victor Plata, vice president of sales and marketing for the Metairie, La., firm, said his company will spend as much as $4 million to expand extrusion and bag-making capacity in 1999 at Oklahoma City. Advance Polybag already has invested more than $15 million in the 4-year-old facility.
Plata said Advance Polybag is checking out potential manufacturing sites in California and should make a decision early in 1999. He predicts the West Coast plant will be up and running by the third quarter. The firm is prepared to invest about $4 million in the new plant. Plata said officials have not decided whether to purchase a building or erect a new one.
Advance Polybag also operates an extrusion and bag plant in Kenner, La.
Plata did not disclose sales figures for the family-owned business, which has been in operation more than 12 years. He claims it is among the top four in grocery sacks in the United States. It uses high-speed Alpine extrusion lines.
Advance Polybag is promoting two new bag products. Its CoXXtra sack has a high density polyethylene inner layer for strength and a linear low density PE exterior for a soft feel and good printing quality, the company says.
Plata said the firm's new Touch N Go bag system is unique in that a bag self-opens when the previous bag filled with groceries is removed from the rack.
It saves a checkout cashier a few seconds for each bag and addresses complaints from cashiers who usually open each carryout sack manually before filling it. A glue spot on the top of the bag allows it to open when the previous bag is pulled away from it.
