Injection molder Core Systems LLC is using state and county funding to add 62 jobs and purchase nine injection molding machines at its plant in Painesville, Ohio.
The new jobs are being created through a $500,000 state loan and a $100,000 loan from Lake County. Both loans are low-interest, Core Systems President Bill Loebbaka said by phone July 1.
“We still would have expanded, even without the loans,” he said. “But the loans make it easier.”
Lake County Commissioner Dan Troy said that providing the loan “is a good deal for the county.”
“One problem these days is businesses' ability to find capital,” Troy said in a June 30 phone interview. “These are good jobs and we want to make sure they stay here.”
New employees and additional machines are needed to make appliance parts for Whirlpool Corp. The Painesville plant makes polystyrene and ABS door assemblies for washers and dryers. The door assemblies will be used on new models that Whirlpool will launch later this year, Loebbaka said.
Appliance-related sales make up more than half of Core's annual sales. Whirlpool is its biggest customer. Painesville-based Core already has hired 28 new employees since May. The other 34 should be on board by mid-2011.
Core Systems also does a large amount of work for German industrial supplier Bosch Group.
On the machinery front, Core already has installed six used presses — three 390-ton models, two 700-ton models and a 950-ton machine. Three more used machines should be in place by the end of the year.
To make room for the presses, the firm has leased a 40,000-square-foot space in nearby Mentor that will be used for warehousing and light assembly work.
The Painesville plant employs about 275 and covers 120,000 square feet. Core also operates a 75,000-square-foot plant in Mount Gilead, Ohio, that makes appliance parts and employs 70.
Core Systems is on track to ring up sales of more than $50 million in 2010, which Loebbaka said would be “a slight increase” vs. 2009. The firm is owned by a Chicago-based group of private investors that bought the business in 2002.
Core was formed in 1997 when industry investors bought injection molder Encor Technologies in Mount Gilead. The firm then grew through acquiring three other injection molding firms — Chagrin Plastic Methods of Mentor; Kaybe Products Inc. of Kernersville, N.C.; and Nuco Plastics of Willoughby Hills, Ohio.
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