Caraustar to close nozzle plant in Ky.
AUSTELL, GA. - Caraustar Industries Inc. is closing a plastics plant in Georgetown, Ky.
The plant employs 20 and makes plastic nozzles for caulk guns. Caraustar said it is closing the plant to be more cost-efficient, according to a news release. The facility will continue to operate for a few months.
Employees will receive severance pay, benefits continuation and job placement assistance, according to the company.
Caraustar deals mostly with recycled paperboard, but a fraction of its 108 locations extrude or injection mold plastics. The machinery from Georgetown will be transferred to Paragon Plastics, a Caraustar plant in Union, S.C., Ron Domanico, Caraustar chief financial officer, said July 2.
The plastics division now will consist of two plants, Paragon and a plant in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. The plants make the nozzles and other products that complement Caraustar's paperboard products.
Worker at Vitafoam found inside machine
DOWNSVIEW, ONTARIO - A worker died in the early hours of June 21 at polyurethane foam producer and converter Vitafoam Products Canada Ltd. of Downsview.
The worker was found motionless in an industrial machine at 4 a.m. June 21, according to a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of Labour. Paramedics were called but they could not revive the worker.
The ministry is investigating the incident, but had no further comment. CanWest News Services reported the worker died at a foam cutting machine. Company officials were not immediately available.
Owens Corning plans West Coast facility
TOLEDO, OHIO - Owens Corning will build a West Coast plant for rigid extruded polystyrene foam insulation.
The 50,000-square-foot site will begin operation in 2005, officials said in a June 24 news release. Owens Corning already has warehousing and roofing manufacturing facilities in that area. The plant, which will employ 35, will supply the Toledo-based company's brands of rigid extruded PS products including Foamular and Celfort. Owens Corning operates three rigid extruded PS foam insulation plants, in Valleyfield, Quebec; Rockford, Ill.; and Tallmadge, Ohio.
``Customer demand for extruded foam insulation has surged in recent years due to its outstanding moisture resistance, durability and thermal properties,'' said George Kiemle, president of the company's Insulating Systems business.
Auction scheduled for Scenery assets
TORONTO - The assets of a defunct Toronto thermoformer will be sold by the firm's trustee in bankruptcy.
Scenery Plastics Inc. went bankrupt because of a slowdown in Canadian movie production. Scenery made movie props and similar products, said James Graham, account representative for Scenery at Toronto trustee Schwartz Levitsky Feldman Inc.
The thermoformer was especially hard hit by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome epidemic in Toronto in early 2003. For months, movie producers avoided shoots in Toronto because of SARS fears. Although movie production in the city has recovered, Scenery could not overcome its financial problems, Graham said.
Scenery's assets include a vacuum forming machine, computer numerically controlled trimming machine and laminated object manufacturing system. Graham said it also made some products for the wallcovering industry. Schwartz Levitsky Feldman will accept bids for Scenery's assets until July 6.
Premier Protective doubles its capacity
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. - Premier Protective Packaging Corp. doubled its capacity at the end May, when it moved to a new, 30,000-square-foot facility.
``To continue our growth, we needed more square footage for additional equipment - proprietary equipment of our own design - for additional production capabilities,'' said President Tom Rings in a telephone interview.
The converter makes protective packaging from polyethylene and polypropylene foams and bubble material, and nonwoven PP for a variety of industrial packaging applications. Rings said the products are used to protect anything from projection televisions to small automotive knobs.
He added that the company primarily does custom work.
Rings and his partner, Vice President Doug Doelder, started the firm in October 2000 at its former, 15,000-square-foot plant. The private company has grown each year, boosting sales 20 percent last year, and it expects the same growth this year.
Premier Protective Packaging employs 16. Rings projects the company will add as many as eight workers in the next two years.
Rotomolder in Minn. adding equipment
HOYT LAKES, MINN. - Premier Plastics Inc., a rotational molder and vacuum former based in Hoyt Lakes, is buying new equipment to expand its 1-year-old facility.
The company, founded in 1997, moved to a 30,000-square-foot plant in Hoyt Lakes in late May 2003. Premier now has a $375,000 project in the works to buy computer numerically controlled trimming machinery, owner and President Bob Menne said in a telephone interview.
``Now that we've expanded a year ago, we're just filling up that building,'' Menne said.
Premier makes marine parts for pontoon boat makers.
The company currently employs 22, up from 16 a year ago. The plant operates three vacuum formers and two rotomolding machines.
