Industrial plastics recycler McDunnough Inc. is relocating its operations from Whitmore Lake, Mich., to nearby Fenton, Mich., in a move that will significantly increase both its warehousing and recycling capacities.
“We were limited in space and in processing ability at our current plant,” said owner Darren McDunnough in a July 13 phone interview. “This will allow us to effectively double our capacity for inventory and processing, and allow us to add more equipment.”
The new plant also will improve the company's transportation and logistics, he said, as it has 18 truck-loading docks, compared with three at the plant in Whitmore Lake.
McDunnough said the 45,000-square-foot plant in Whitmore Lake will close, and the transition to the 75,000-square-foot plant in Fenton will be complete by the end of the month. He said the company purchased the former automotive seating plant July 2.
“We expect our capacity, our volume, our revenues, our customer base and our supplier base to all increase,” McDunnough said. “We believe that we can increase our processing capacity and inventory by up to 50 percent in the next six to eight months.”
McDunnough said that the company's 15 employees will all move to the new location, and that he expects to increase the workforce by about five employees by the end of the year. All the equipment — grinders, baling equipment and ancillary equipment — will be relocated to the Fenton plant.
“The time was perfect for us to move both from a growth standpoint and from a value proposition,” McDunnough said. “We purchased the building at an opportune time.”
The company has been leasing the Whitmore Lake plant.
McDunnough said the company remained profitable during the industry downturn two years ago because of its diverse customer base and because it had “zero debt.”
“That gave us the agility to keep solvent during that difficult time,” he added.
The 12-year-old company recycles both commodity and engineered plastics from a variety of industries including automotive, food packaging, materials handling, recreation and outdoor products. McDunnough said plastics recycling represents about 85 percent of the company's business.
“We certainly do a fair amount of automotive plastics recycling, but it is not the majority of our business,” McDunnough said. “Our goal is to increase our customer base, as well as our supply base. This expansion will allow us to grow.”