Plastipak plans 2nd new plant in South
PLYMOUTH, MICH. - Aggressively expanding its capacity, Plastipak Packaging Inc. will open a second new container plant next year in the Southeast.
The Plymouth company will launch an 80,000-square-foot bottle-making facility on 18 acres in Plant City, Fla., a suburb of Tampa. Plastipak will hire 75 production and management positions in Plant City, according to a spokeswoman with the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. The company said Sept. 24 that it already is planning future expansion at that facility.
As reported, the firm also plans to start a 280,000-square-foot facility in McCalla, Ala., with 50 workers. Both facilities will open in the first quarter of next year, the company said, and will include barrier technology for extending shelf life. The plants will supply containers for liquid food, carbonated soft drinks, water and nonfood items.
Once the facilities are open, Plastipak will have 14 plants. The company recently reported a $9.2 million profit for the first nine months of fiscal 2002 on sales of $600.28 million.
The company also offered $50 million in senior notes Sept. 18 to fund capital expenditures and technology development.
W&H buys auxiliary equipment maker
LENGERICH, GERMANY - Windmoeller & Hoelscher, a German manufacturer of blown and cast film extrusion lines, converting machinery and printing equipment, is buying a company in W&H's hometown of Lengerich that makes oscillating hauloffs, winders and film-sizing cages.
W&H said the acquisition of Reinhold Machinery Co. will be completed Jan. 1. Terms were not disclosed. Reinhold was founded in the early 1970s by Klaus Reinhold, a former W&H employee. The 90-employee firm is next to W&H headquarters.
W&H said Reinhold Machinery will continue to operate independently under its own name. The staff will be retained.
Reinhold had supplied W&H with film hauloffs, winders and other downstream equipment before the deal, said a spokeswoman at W&H's U.S. operation, Windoeller & Hoelscher Corp. in Lincoln, R.I.
Auto supplier growing U.S. operations
ANDERSON, S.C. - German automotive supplier Friedrichs & Rath Inc. is expanding its U.S. production base in Anderson, with plans to add 20 employees to the nearly 50 already there.
The injection molder is a second-tier supplier to automakers, producing fuel-pump components.
Friedrichs & Rath will spend about $1.8 million on the 22,500-square-foot addition. It now has 28 presses with clamping forces of 20-400 tons. The Extertal, Germany-based company opened its U.S. subsidiary in 1996.
SPI, Energy Dept. to share information
WASHINGTON - The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. agreed Sept. 20 with the Department of Energy to exchange information and trade best practices in energy efficiency.
The partnership with DOE's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office will give plastics firms better access to the department's programs, including energy-use audits that have resulted in average savings of $25,000 a year for participating companies, a DOE official said.
The DOE has 45 similar partnerships, but this is the broadest so far, said David Garman, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. Garman spoke Sept. 20 at an SPI board meeting in Washington.
Husky has $12.5 million loss, sales drop
BOLTON, ONTARIO - Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. struggled through ``another year of widespread economic turmoil,'' losing US$12.5 million as sales declined 9.3 percent to $580.9 million for fiscal 2002, ended July 31.
Looking ahead, officials said Husky is poised to turn a profit once sales increase, but they expect soft market conditions to persist into calendar 2003.
Released Sept. 25, the results mark the second straight money-losing year for the Bolton maker of injection molding machines, PET blow molding machines and hot-runner molds. In fiscal 2001 Husky lost $7.8 million on sales of $640.2 million.