ACM adds equipment, plans to build facility STURGIS, MICH. — Blow molder ACM Plastic Products Inc. is adding two machines, and hopes to begin building a new plant soon.
The company currently has 17 machines in its 70,000-square-foot plant, but President Bill Walters said two more machines with 40-pound accumulator heads should be operating within the next couple of weeks.
He also hopes to break ground soon on a plant next door to the firm's Sturgis headquarters.
"I just applied to the bank to see if I can get the money to build it. It's all going up in phases," he said, adding that he is unsure how large the facility will be.
ACM serves the toy, packaging, medical, automotive, food, and lawn and garden industries.
Smiths Industries buying Sabritec Inc.
LONDON — High tech medical and electronics components manufacturer Smiths Industries plc is paying $52.4 million to take over Sabritec Inc., a manufacturer of specialty connectors for defense and aerospace applications.
Sabritec, a privately owned Irvine, Calif., company, employs 185 people. It expects to record an operating profit of $5 million on 1999 sales of $18 million, according to London-based Smiths Industries.
Filter connectors are devices that protect an electrical circuit against radio frequency interference and electromagnetic pulses.
Connector production involves the use of thermoset plastics including for insulation between contacts, according to a Smiths Industries spokesman.
The deal boosts the British company's own defense-related interconnect product interests, in particular its Hypertac high-performance connectors designed and produced at five plants in Europe and North America. These include facilities in London; Genoa, Italy; Deggendorf, Germany; St. Aubin, France, and Hudson, Mass.
Orica sells last of its plastics businesses
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Melbourne-based Orica Ltd. has sold its polyethylene film business, the last of its wholly owned plastics businesses.
Orica Cast Films, which makes PE film for disposable diapers, was sold to Melbourne-based Stellar Films Group Pty. Ltd., a company owned by a former Orica Cast Films executive.
Terms were not disclosed, but an Orica spokesman said the sale will be "profit neutral" to Orica.
The deal includes Cast Films' Melbourne plant and equipment, plus its Orica Films Asia Sdn. Bhd. subsidiary in Port Klang, Malaysia.
The film operations had total annual sales of about A$15 million (US$9.2 million).
"It is anticipated that all 65 employees based at Deer Park and in Malaysia will transfer to the Stellar Films Group," the spokesman said.
In February, Orica sold its polyurethane business to Huntsman Corp. of Salt Lake City.
