Accel Color, a specialty color compounder based in Avon, Ohio, is adding a total of three used extrusion lines at its two plants.
President and Chief Executive Officer Dwight Morgan chalked up the expansion to dynamic sales growth at the 4-year-old firm, as well as to a used machinery market that's favorable to buyers right now.
The firm's Avon site is receiving two used lines, bringing that location's total to seven. In Naperville, Ill., Accel is installing that site's eighth extrusion line. All three lines are expected to be up and running by late October. The firm then will have a total of 15 lines.
The Avon plant also is getting a new mixer, while Naperville is getting a new blender and having two extrusion lines rebuilt. The total cost of the projects is around $500,000.
Accel's sales are expected to hit $15 million this year, a jump of 50 percent from 2001. The 65-employee firm has flourished in challenging economic times through a service-oriented business model that's brought in an average of seven new customers a month so far in 2002, Morgan said.
``We're able to do small and large orders; we don't set minimum order sizes,'' Morgan added. ``And that's really important with so many customers really focused on logistics.''
On the machinery front, Morgan said there's ``a glut of [compounding] equipment on the market,'' creating opportunities for companies that are looking to expand.
Accel also is moving ahead with plans to add sites through acquisition or new construction. Morgan said new sites in the Northeast and Southeast each could be announced in the first half of 2003. Possibilities on the West Coast also are being explored, he added.
There's been some recent change at the executive level for Accel, as plastics veteran David Knowles left the firm earlier this year to accept a position with Honeywell Inc.'s polyester business. Knowles, who joined Accel in late 2000, will retain an ownership stake in the firm.
The firm also appointed Dan Rowell as its first chief financial officer in July. Rowell previously had worked for a Cleveland-area software firm.
Accel does more than half of its volume in compounds based on polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. The firm also has had some success with its line of Color Gem-brand color and additive concentrates, which it produces on three product mills in Avon. Morgan said Color Gem materials are highly loaded and can compete with liquid color products.