Tessy Plastics Corp. is investing $5 million to expand its Lynchburg, Va., injection molding operation. The firm will install 15 new presses, all Niigata and Nissei models with clamping forces of 40-400 tons. The company will complete the first stage of a building addition by the end of March.
Growing business with telecommunications equipment companies, including a nearby Ericsson Inc. facility, sparked the expansion, said Ken Beck, general manager for the Lynchburg plant.
Tessy now runs 31 injection presses in Lynchburg, Beck said in a telephone interview. It opened the plant in mid-1997.
Beck said Tessy currently is building a 10,000-square-foot addition. The company will add another 25,000 square feet by September. The plant now has 40,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space. Beck said Tessy plans to install another 15 presses in Lynchburg later this year.
Tessy is close to opening a new injection molding plant in Dundalk, Ireland. The 20,000-square-foot operation will start with 10 presses when it commences production this month, according to Beck.
The new plant is near a facility run by Xerox Corp., a major Tessy customer.
Beck said Tessy also will open an assembly facility in Shanghai, China, in March.
Tessy, based in Elbridge, N.Y., could create as many as 200 more jobs at its Lynchburg plant through the expansion.
The project is being aided by a $5 million tax-free bond arranged with the help of the Lynchburg Industrial Development Authority.
Tessy recorded sales of $43 million in 1998. That year it built a second injection molding plant next to its original one in Elbridge.