The rough economy has caused two brothers to begin the process of selling the company their father started 49 years ago.
“Revenues have fallen too low to meet expenses,” said Don Palmer, president of Allied Custom Molded Plastics in Columbus, Ohio. “People still want what we're making — there's just not enough of them.”
Don and his brother Kenny, the firm's vice president, are asking $250,000 for their business, which includes five HPM and two Van Dorn presses dating from the mid-1960s to early '70s in a 10,000-square-foot building with molds and a toolroom.
The injection molding machines range in clamping force from 75-300 tons.
The Palmers are willing to sell just the book of business — which they said is low-volume but steady work making industrial spools, conveyor-belt components, parts for lawn spreaders and other jobs — for $125,000.
Peter Luft Realtors in Columbus is marketing the business.
Allied founder Del Palmer, a tool and die maker, was a partner with Columbus Stamping and Manufacturing Co. when he left in 1960 to start his own plastics company. Del Palmer died in 2000; sons Don and Kenny have run the business, which employs about eight, ever since.
Don Palmer said Allied's first contract was for molding spools for film made at DuPont Co.'s factory in nearby Circleville, Ohio. He said DuPont remains a customer today for the small industrial spools, which became an Allied specialty.
Another customer is PSB Co. in Columbus, which makes fertilizer lawn spreaders as a unit of Columbus-based White Castle Management Co., best known for its chain of hamburger restaurants. Allied also molds plastic conveyor strips for supermarket giant Kroger Co. of Cincinnati.