ACT shows off plant during open house
GARDNER, MASS. — Advanced Cable Ties Inc. recently held an open house for its new, 58,000-square-foot injection molding plant.
ACT previously had rented a 17,000-square-foot building about 10 miles away.
The new facility houses nine presses with clamping forces of 225-610 tons, a materials-handling system designed to eliminate contamination and a quality laboratory.
ACT said in a news release it expects future growth to prompt the need for two 36,000-square-foot building additions.
The Gardner-based company is introducing new products for the electrical industry and will have a new catalog by the end of April. ACT serves the electrical and heating and cooling industries. Its largest market is for fasteners.
The 4-year-old company employs more than 100 and reported 1998 sales of $7 million.
Berry addins space, presses at Ohio plant
EVANSVILLE, IND. — Berry Plastics Corp. plans to begin production in a 45,000-square-foot addition to its Monroeville, Ohio, plant by June 1.
The company broke ground on the addition to its 120,000-square-foot plant in November. Howard Weatherwax, Monroeville plant manager, said Berry plans to buy two or three 800-ton presses for the expansion. He added that the company will shift presses among other Berry plants.
The Monroeville plant currently has 26 machines with clamping forces of 300-550 tons. After the addition is finished, the facility will hold 16 presses, Weatherwax said. Although there will be fewer presses, they all will have 500 tons or more of clamping force.
The plant employs 307. Weatherwax said he does not plan to hire any additional employees at this time.
Berry also is just finishing a major renovation of its Charlotte, N.C., plant, where the printing and molding areas were expanded and refurbished. The plant has added six presses.
Berry, headquartered in Evansville, operates nine U.S. plants in Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Iowa, North Carolina, Illinois, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. It also has a plant in Norwich, England. Berry employs about 2,300 and operates a total of 250 presses.
Berry serves the food, dairy, personal-care, retail, building supplies, industrial and promotional markets. Major product lines include aerosol overcaps, open-top containers, drink cups, housewares, lawn and garden and custom products.
Berry's customers include Procter & Gamble Co., McDonald's Corp., Burger King Corp., PepsiCo Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kmart Corp. The company reported 1998 injection molding sales of $265 million.
Clean room in works at Unimark S.C. plant
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Injection molder Unimark Plastics Co., a division of Alltrista Corp., plans to add another Class 10,000 clean room to its 45,000-square-foot Greenville facility by the third quarter of this year. The firm installed the first clean room in August.
Unimark plans to buy eight to 10 presses, with clamping forces of 200 tons, for the clean room by the end of the year. The plant, which employs 50, currently has 19 presses, with clamping forces of 100-300 tons.
Dan Hanlon, vice president of sales and marketing, said the additions are needed to support accounts with new customers in the health-care industry. Hanlon said Unimark is looking at a possible expansion of the Greenville facility, but he could give no details as to when.
Unimark has three other facilities — two in Reedsville, Pa., and one in Springfield, Mo.
The company added a clean room and six presses with clamping forces of 100-220 tons to one of the Reedsville facilities late in the third quarter last year. Hanlon said 65 percent of that plant's business is with health-care companies that require clean room facilities.
He said the company also is discussing plans to expand the Springfield plant.
Unimark employs 250 and operates 75 injection presses. The company reported 1998 sales of $42 million, up from $35 million in 1997.
A&D Plastics moves to larger Mich. site
PLYMOUTH, MICH. — A&D Plastics Inc. has moved to a new injection molding facility in Plymouth.
The 19,000-square-foot plant gives the company an extra 7,000 square feet of space.
The former facility, also in Plymouth, was spread out over three buildings.
Office manager Kathleen Hoffman said the company needed the extra space and wanted everything to be under one roof. It made the move in early March.
A&D operates nine presses with clamping forces of less than 350 tons, and plans to buy additional presses this year and next.
The company, which employs 26, will hire a few additional employees. A&D reported $2 million in 1998 sales. It serves the automotive, computer and business machines, and industrial markets.