After three years of searching for room to grow, Sinicon Plastics Inc. has bought a 35,000-square-foot facility in Dalton, Mass., and plans to move early next year.
``We're looking forward to it. In the last three years we've continued to grow,'' said Chief Executive Officer and President David Allen. The injection molder now operates a plant Pittsfield, Mass.
``Dalton is the next town over,'' Allen said in a telephone interview. ``I've always said that as long as you're in Berkshire County, you don't have to worry. The fact is, the facility is more centrally located for the employees.''
Sinicon makes bearings and components for the medical, electrical transmission and other industries. It employs 25, all of whom will transfer to the new building.
The firm specializes in high-end engineering resins such as Ultem polyetherimide, polyetheretherketone, 15 percent stainless-steel-filled polycarbonate and custom compounded materials, as well as silicone molding. It runs primarily KraussMaffei and Arburg presses. Three machines are configured for micromolding.
Back in 2005, Sinicon said it would build a facility on the site of a former General Electric Co. generator plant in Pittsfield, but the molder never found a location that fit its requirements.
Sinicon has worked with the factory planning group from Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. of Bolton, Ontario, to design a plant layout, according to Allen. Now, it will be retrofitting a building in Dalton that GE had used for various projects. The location offers several acres of industrial-zoned land. Sinicon will renovate 23,000 square feet of the building for its own use and allow three current tenants, none of them in plastics, to remain in the facility.
He said the plant will double the firm's molding area, to 10,000 square feet, and provide space for a clean room. Sinicon plans to invest in new equipment, including an expansion of its silicone molding capabilities. It currently has two silicone presses.
Allen puts the overall investment at about $1.7 million. Financing is being provided largely by TD BankNorth through a state industrial revenue bond issued by Boston-based state authority MassDevelopment and Massachusetts Community Development Finance Corp.
The town of Dalton also is aiding the project and has designated the property an economic opportunity area.
Sinicon was founded in 1968 by Anthony J. Sinico Sr., who still works there. Allen acquired the firm in 1989.