Two U.S. Midwest packaging thermoformers have merged to create a business offering a comprehensive food-packaging product line.
CM Packaging of Lake Zurich, Ill., acquired Packaging Direct Inc. of Gladwin, Mich., for undisclosed terms in a deal finalized April 28. The beefed-up entity is especially prominent in food packaging. CM's plastic items have found use mostly in baked goods, pizza sales, supermarket and food-service markets, while PDI has emphasized fresh-cut produce and delicatessen items.
CM Packaging President Mark Faber said the two firms' sales representatives already have started seeing benefits of cross-selling a wider array of thermoformed trays and lids.
Faver said CM will consider putting in a sheet extrusion line because the two firms' production volumes might warrant it vs. continuing to purchase sheet. PDI mainly thermoforms PET sheet. About a fifth of CM's throughput is PET-based, with most of the rest being oriented polystyrene. CM runs 10 thermoforming lines in Lake Zurich, while PDI has 25 lines in Gladwin.
CM shares a 300,000-square-foot facility in Lake Zurich with its parent company, privately held Chicago Metallic Products Inc. Chicago Metallic recently decided to invest more in packaging, which it sees as a growth area. To that end, it also sold a retail metal bakeware division in January. It continues to make commercial bakeware in Humboldt, Tenn.
Complementing its plastics packaging, CM makes aluminum foil containers in Central Islip, N.Y., Miami; and City of Industry, Calif.
The company also makes dual-ovenable paper containers.
PDI, established in 1996, had sales of about $13 million last year, according to Plastics News' recent thermoforming survey.
It currently employs 42, although that number goes up by 20 people or more during seasonal demand spikes, said PDI Chief Financial Officer Jim Hop.
CM does not release annual sales, said spokesman Bill Fife.
Late last year PDI consolidated manufacturing into a new, 93,500-square-foot operation in Gladwin. It is using its former Gladwin plant for warehousing, Hop said in a telephone interview. PDI vacated a leased production plant in Beaverton, Mich.
Former PDI owner Joe Oberloier and other executives are continuing with the business under the ownership change.
