Quest buys Kreative's decorating unit
HILLSIDE, N.J. - Quest Industries LLC has boosted its decorating capability by purchasing the decorating division of Kreative Plastics Inc. of Frostburg, Md.
The acquisition was completed in February for an undisclosed price. Now Hillside-based Quest can spray coat plastic containers for its primary customers in the cosmetics, personal-care and beverage industries, said Steve Contreras, sales director for Quest's East Coast operations.
About 40 Kreative employees transferred to privately owned Quest, which now has a total of about 225 employees in Maryland, New Jersey and California.
Playtex exits molding by closing plant
WESTPORT, CONN. - Playtex Products Inc. will close its last injection molding facility in Watervliet, N.Y., by the end of the year.
The plant makes parts for the firm's infant-feeding products, mainly spillproof cups, and employs about 160. Spokesman Martin Petersen said that production and related machinery will be relocated to an undisclosed molder in North Carolina.
Michael Gallagher, Playtex chief executive officer, said closing the plant and shifting work to outside molders will save the Westport firm $1.5 million a year beginning in 2003. Playtex will take an $8 million charge in its first quarter to cover the shutdown and asset write-offs.
Petersen said Playtex was upgrading the 120,000-square-foot facility when it realized the old-fashioned building wasn't suitable for modernization.
Dart lays off 53 machinery employees
MASON, MICH. - Dart Container Corp. has cut its machinery-making division by 53 employees.
The firm does not expect to make any additional layoffs beyond those announced March 26, said Jim Lammers, vice president of administration for Mason-based Dart.
``We really just took a long, hard look at what we have in production now, what we've got in stock and what our future needs were going to be,'' he said. ``We found we don't need as many people in the machinery area.''
The 291-employee unit in Mason makes equipment used by Dart to make polystyrene food packaging. Dart employs about 5,000 and had an estimated $1.2 billion in sales last year.
MedSource IPO exceeds $100 million
PLYMOUTH, MINN. - MedSource Technologies Inc. raised more than $100 million by selling 8.34 million shares of common stock in an initial public offering completed March 27. At $12 per share, the sale did not meet the medical-device industry supplier's target range of $15-$17 per share, but it constituted the market's only IPO of the week.
Initially, the IPO was projected to involve 7.5 million shares. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. was the lead underwriter.
Seven medical-component suppliers consolidated in April 1999 to form Plymouth-based MedSource, now trading on the Nasdaq National Market. MedSource employed more than 1,350 and had a loss of $19.5 million on sales of $128.5 million for the fiscal year ended June 30.
Sigma boosting film capacity in Okla.
LYNDHURST, N.J. - Sigma Stretch Film is spending about $2.5 million to expand capacity at its plant in Tulsa, Okla.
Sigma will install a three-layer blown film line there to meet increasing demand in the West and Southwest for hand-wound stretch films. Per Nylen, executive vice president of manufacturing, said the extra capacity will be available in the fourth quarter, boosting nameplate by 50 percent to about 50 million pounds per year.
Sigma chose a Battenfeld Gloucester extrusion line because that brand is installed at all five Sigma stretch film plants, allowing each plant to make a range of interchangeable products. Tulsa now has a three-layer cast film line and two blown film lines, Nylen said. The firm's other stretch film operations are in Lyndhurst, where it is based; Shelbyville, Ky.; Belleville, Ontario; and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
The stretch film unit is part of Sigma Plastics Group, which has more than 950 million pounds of annual film and sheet capacity.
