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.
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