Botts seeking to relaunch Grand Rapids
WYOMING, MICH. - The family of Grand Rapids Plastics Inc. founder Arthur Bott is preparing to relaunch the business, two years after it was shut down.
The firm will reopen after purchasing one of the company's former plants, an 80,000-square-foot building in the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming, at an auction.
The original company, a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based injection molder, opened in 1976 and grew to four facilities before the Bott family sold it to Jefferson Plastic Co. Inc. of St. Clair, Mich., in 2001. Jefferson Plastic closed the operations in 2003.
Jerry Bott, son of the founder, said in a news release that Grand Rapids Plastics now is debt-free and seeking orders, with plans to focus on work as a Tier 2 molder.
The company's presses have clamping forces of 200-1,500 tons and have been refurbished. The firm also has sonic, vibration and hot-plate welding, pad printing and assembly operations in addition to molding.
DAK boosting PET capacity at N.C. site
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - PET resin manufacturer DAK Americas Inc. plans to add 100,000 square feet and 450 million pounds of annual capacity to its Cape Fear, N.C., manufacturing site, raising the company's annual capacity to 1.1 billion pounds.
The formal groundbreaking on the $60 million expansion was July 14, but preliminary work began earlier.
Tom Sherlock, DAK's resins business director, said he feels confident the expansion will be finished by the fourth quarter of 2006, since part of the infrastructure already is in place because of the existing Cape Fear facility.
Sherlock estimated the expansion will create 40 jobs and generate $200 million in additional sales annually for DAK.
Charlotte-based DAK received a $100,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund for the expansion, Sherlock said.
The new facility will employ a melt-facing technique that is more cost- and labor-effective than solid-stating polymerization, Sherlock said. The switch follows Eastman Chemical Co.'s Voridian division announcement last year that it would be replacing solid-stating polymerization with a process called IntegRex.
DAK, which is run by President and Chief Executive Officer Hector Camberos, also has facilities in Charleston, S.C., and Fayettesville, N.C.
Vartek adding coextrusion lines in Fla.
TAMPA, FLA. - There's a new extruder serving the market for pool, spa and irrigation hose and tubing.
Vartek Industries LLC of Tampa already is expanding after kicking up operations in March in a 45,000-square-foot site.
John Porter, formerly president of Tek Tube LLC of Las Vegas, started the operation in Tampa with 10 employees.
The site is equipped with four extrusion lines, Porter said in a July 14 telephone interview, and the company is adding two coextrusion lines to keep up with demand, along with two silos. Vartek uses Milacron and Conair machinery to make coextruded flexible and rigid PVC hose, which is used in portable spas and irrigation systems.
Porter said Vartek's business plan included buying a facility rather than renting, and building a plant infrastructure that eventually can support 10 lines.
In addition, the company will bring material in from bulk trucks to save on labor costs.
Chevron Phillips building Texas PPS site
THE WOODLANDS, TEXAS - Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC will build its new polyphenylene sulfide site in Borger, Texas, adjacent to the company's only other Ryton-brand PPS resin plant.
The plant will have capacity to make 22 million pounds annually, which will increase the company's PPS total to 44 million.
A company spokesman called the project ``a multimillion-dollar investment,'' but had no details on the cost or number of employees.
Ryton PPS is used in automobile, computer and other electrical parts, including under the hood of the new Ford 500.
The company selected Borger because of the manufacturing expertise already in the city, the spokesman said.
``Property tax abatements were a factor,'' he added, but he declined to give details.
Chevron Phillips is based in The Woodlands.