Injection molder Tenacore Holdings Inc. is more than doubling space by moving about one mile in Santa Ana, Calif., to a facility it acquired for $4 million in mid-December.
“We desperately needed the space,” said Brand Caso, who with Peter Bonin III has owned and operated Tenacore since 2000 and its Newport Plastics LLC division since early 2008.
Completing relocation of the plastics processing, toolmaking, three modular Class 10,000 clean rooms and assembly operations will cost about $750,000 and should be completed by the end of April. The new location has 34,000 square feet, compared with Tenacore's current leased site of 15,300 square feet.
Tenacore seeks work from overseas. “The most recent job is a topical consumer product similar to a deodorant application,” Caso said. Tenacore brought the job from Asia in February.
“We have a willingness to tell our story of bringing work back to the U.S.,” he said. “Personally, I want to be involved with anything that gets that dialogue going for all injection molders in the U.S.”
Tenacore acquired the assets of Baron Quality Molds Inc. of Anaheim, Calif., from Baron President Mike Close in November. Separately, Tenacore added more computer numerically controlled electric discharge machines, including a wire EDM.
“In the near future we will probably add another Swiss screw machine, as our air-fitting work is growing,” Caso said. “Currently, we have a Star 20SRIII that is about a year old.”
Tenacore invested about $600,000 for capital equipment during 2009 and anticipates a similar expenditure this year.
Tenacore employs 100, including eight workers involved in toolmaking. In that function, “We added three people from Baron, and two were horizontal internal moves from other disciplines,” he said.
Secondary operations include hot stamping, ultrasonic welding, pad printing and decorating.
The business operates eight injection presses with clamping forces of 60-350 tons and one 30-ton vertical rotary machine. In 2009, the firm added a 190-ton Nissei in June and a 60-ton Nissei in March.
The operations had 2009 sales of $10.5 million, up from $7.5 million in the previous year. About 60 percent of the business relates to repairing and overhauling equipment for hospitals and clinics, with the remainder in proprietary products often compatible with existing medical-treatment systems.
New proprietary products include an oxygen blender, wall-suction regulators, electrocardiography patient cables and lead wires, fetal transducers and a finger probe that measures oxygen saturation within blood. “We expect two significant new products this year,” Caso noted.
Tenacore is registered under ISO 13485 and will undergo an audit in May to continue that status at the new location.
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