MGB Plastics, a budding PET extrusion and thermoforming company out of Vancouver, British Columbia, has set up its first U.S. operation in Evanston, Wyo. The plant has been extruding and thermoforming post-consumer PET sheet for agricultural markets for two months, said Mike Mason, MGB's vice president of sales and marketing.
The company considered sites in four other states for the U.S. operation, but selected the Wyoming site because of the work-force availability and economical cost of doing business, Mason said by telephone.
Evanston has suffered from economic depression and abandonment during the past 20 years, since a 1980s drop in oil prices. Since then, the city of less than 13,000 has been losing citizens to areas with higher-paying jobs, such as nearby Salt Lake City.
"It seemed to be the ideal location from a labor standpoint and from the economics of running the plant," Mason said. "The support of the community is one of the major factors."
The company's 35 employees are mostly young workers, he said. Mason said he hopes to raise the number of workers to 50-100 by the end of the year, and double or triple the size of the plant.
"The lifestyle is laid back, a little bit slower and it's a comfortable life, too," said Mason, a native of Southern California.
"It's clean air, which I'm not used to in Los Angeles," he joked.
Mason declined to offer sales projections for the company.