Nursery supply firm gets cash infusion
CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Nursery Supplies Inc., a privately owned, Chambersburg-based manufacturer of plastic containers for the nursery wholesale industry, has received a $20 million investment from American Capital Strategies Ltd. of Bethesda, Md.
Nursery Supplies President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Schrode said the company plans to add equipment.
``We have enough brick and mortar. We'll be spending the money on new equipment, new product lines,'' he said. He would not provide details.
NSI employs as many as 500 seasonally at four plants. The firm thermoforms, blow molds and injection molds its products.
The investment comes on the heels of an ownership change. Private equity partner Lincolnshire Management Inc. now owns 100 percent of the firm's stock.
Heywood plans sale of profiles business
HUDDERSFIELD, ENGLAND - Heywood Williams plc, the leading United Kingdom PVC window systems producer, plans to sell its Plastics Systems division this year to focus on distribution of branded building products.
The Huddersfield-based firm, which last year did a wholesale restructuring and senior management shakeup, decided its profile extrusion, window system and building product operations no longer are core businesses.
Plastic Systems reported sales last year of about £64 million ($117.3 million). The profiles business, with well-known brand names like Spectus and Kestrel/BCE, has sales in England, Ireland and Eastern Europe.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Barr said in March that the United Kingdom's market for PVC windows, door and sun rooms is expected to contract further in 2005.
Pactiv begins hiring for S.C. expansion
LAKE FOREST, ILL. - Pactiv Corp. will expand a South Carolina plant that thermoforms food containers.
Pactiv will add 20,000 square feet to its 300,000-square-foot Beech Island, S.C., plant by the first-quarter of 2006, creating 30 jobs, spokeswoman Lisa Foss said July 11.
The plant employs about 225. Lake Forest-based Pactiv did not disclose the expansion's cost but said it will include equipment.
The plant makes carryout containers for restaurants and supermarkets, tableware and Hefty-brand consumer products. The firm is adding employees now so they can be trained before the expansion is finished, Foss said.
Pactiv ranked first on Plastics News' list of North American thermoformers, with $1.39 million in relevant sales last year.
