Massiplast Inc. plans to move to a larger facility next year to accommodate growth in PET bottle preform sales.
The Mississauga, Ontario, firm has focused on PET preform injection molding since late last year, when it exited the blow molding machinery supply business, said Massiplast President Barry Turk in a telephone interview. It now molds about 250 million preforms a year on three Husky and seven Mag injection presses.
Turk predicted growth because his firm, unlike many preform molders, does not do blow molding. This strategy frees up all its injection molding capacity to fulfill custom preform orders. Preform makers that also blow mold can pull some custom preform capacity out of the market when their own blow molding sales increase, he explained.
Massiplast makes a range of preforms in low and high volumes but does not make wide-mouth container preforms. Key markets include water, liquor and cosmetics. Turk did not disclose annual sales, but he said the plant is operating at capacity.
Massiplast is the new name of Mag-Plastic Inc. Until late 1998 Mag-Plastic Inc. distributed blow molding machinery made by Mag-Plastic SA of Geneva which owned about 40 percent of Mag-Plastic Inc. Majority owner Massilly Group bought out Mag-Plastic SA's interest and converted the firm into a preform-only operation and changed its name to Massiplast to reflect the new direction.
Mag-Plastic North America Inc. of Atlanta now handles Mag-Plastic's blow molding machine sales.
Massilly Group of Macon, France, was strictly a metal packaging firm until Turk approached the company to enter plastics through an interest in Mag-Plastic Inc. in 1996, according to Turk. Massilly's other plastics operation is a recently started PET bottle plant in Ghana. Turk estimated Massilly's sales at about C$200 million (US$136 million) annually.