A new sales and marketing alliance is bringing an established maker of plastic and paper packaging together with a year-old company that manufactures woven polypropylene bags.
Film producer Exopack Holding Corp. of Hoffman Estates, Ill., and American Synthetics Inc. of Goose Creek, S.C. — which specializes in woven PP laminated to high-clarity reverse-printed PP film — said Feb. 9 they will market woven PP bags under the Ameripack label.
American Synthetics is the major converter in the bag-making operation, and Exopack's end of the deal relates to printing, as well as marketing and distribution.
“We've taken a unified approach directed toward new customers. We wanted to give them the assurance that they're buying a U.S-made product,” said Christopher Swalm, Exopack's corporate marketing manager, in a Feb. 10 telephone interview.
He said Ameripack bags may ship in significantly less time than woven PP bags sourced from Asia.
Exopack is a portfolio company of Sun Capital Partners Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, the company posted a third-quarter 2009 loss of $1.7 million on $164.9 million in sales, compared with a loss of $2.5 million on sales of $194.7 million for the same period in 2008.
American Synthetics officials were unavailable for comment. According to its Web site, the company is owned by Rom Reddy, a former ExxonMobil Chemical Co. executive who purchased Exxon's PP industrial fabrics business in 1991. He grew the business from $38 million to $128 million in four years, before selling it and becoming a limited partner and consultant for private equity funds.
American Synthetics opened its doors in February 2009, hiring an initial 50-person workforce. At the time, officials said they planned to invest $25 million in the plant and to add another 200 employees within five years.
American Synthetics is located in a 40,000-square-foot industrial building in Goose Creek, near Charleston. It planned to produce 40 million to 45 million woven PP bags in its first year of operations.
Copyright 2010 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved.
