Toolmaker Key Dies builds bigger plant
Annville, Pa. - A company that makes cutting dies for vacuum formed parts plans to expand into a bigger facility.
Key Dies Inc. of Annville will spend $1.4 million on a 58,000-square-foot building across the road from its current plant. The project includes another 8,000 square feet of office space on the 8-acre site. Key Dies will use part of the building; a business that does restoration parts for classic cars will occupy the rest.
``[Key Dies] will take up 15,000 to 18,000 square feet to start and we hope to expand on that,'' President Ralph Moyer said by phone. Its current plant is about one-third that size, he said.
The firm will buy new equipment including a laser router. Moyer said construction will begin once Key Dies gets approval from the South Londonderry Township Council, probably in March. He expects the plant to open in late fall or early 2009.
Moyer and his son Doug, vice president, co-own Key Dies, founded in 1988. The business employs 27.
Plasticoncentrates buys compounder
Chester, Pa. - Plasticoncentrates Inc. has acquired the compounding business of PlastiScience LLC in Smyrna, Del.
The deal includes a twin-screw extrusion line, a 50-ton injection press and several molds, Plasticoncentrates President Ed Tucker said by telephone. PlastiScience President Daniel Davidson will continue to operate his consulting and testing business from the Smyrna site. No purchase price was disclosed.
Chester-based Plasticoncentrates will produce its line of compounds and concentrates - mostly based on engineering resins - at the Smyrna site, as well as at its Chester plant. The Smyrna line has annual capacity of about 1 million pounds. Each location has less than 10 employees.
Tucker said that the new capacity will help his firm to double its sales in 2008, but he declined to disclose figures. Plasticoncentrates' markets include consumer electronics, lawn and garden, building and construction, medical and defense.
Step2 acquiring toy maker Thinkativity
Streetsboro, Ohio - Step2 Co. LLC will add an early-learning toy maker to existing rotational molding and toy operations, officials said in a Feb. 15 news release.
Streetsboro-based Step2, which makes outdoor toys, play sets and children's furniture, is acquiring privately owned Thinkativity Inc. of Englewood, N.J. Terms were not disclosed.
Thinkativity is an award-winning maker of electronic and educational toys geared toward infants to preschoolers. The Thinkativity brand name will remain under Step2 and its operations will be integrated to create cross-marketing opportunities, officials said.
``Thinkativity does not manufacture or assemble their products. They are sourced from overseas,'' said Dotti Foltz, Step2 vice president of marketing communications, in a Feb. 21 e-mail.
``With this addition to our Step2 family of companies, we now provide a wide array of well-made, innovative toys for people who care about the experiences their children have when they play,'' said Scott Levin, Step2's president, in the release.
Liberty Partners LP of New York owns Step2, the largest rotational molder in North America, with estimated 2006 sales of $122 million. The company employs about 800.
Grizzle & Hunter joins Hunter Industries
SAN MARCOS, CALIF. - Irrigation system specialist Hunter Industries Inc. of San Marcos has acquired full ownership of Grizzle & Hunter Plastics LLC of Temecula, Calif.
Glendale Grizzle and Edwin Hunter arranged a 51-49 ownership split when they established custom injection molder Grizzle & Hunter in 1994. Hunter, who founded Hunter Industries, died in 1998, and his heirs assumed the minority ownership in Grizzle & Hunter.
Under the new arrangement, Grizzle said he has joined the Hunter Industries research and development staff as an employee, allowing him to explore new ideas. His son, Vincent Grizzle, remains with Grizzle & Hunter as plant manager. Financial terms for the Jan. 28 deal were not disclosed.
Grizzle & Hunter employs 50 in a 32,000-square-foot facility in San Marcos, and operates 17 injection presses to make rotary sprinklers, spray sprinklers and nozzles, valves, controllers, central controls and sensors. Its also has facilities in Tijuana, Mexico, and Cary, N.C.