Injection molder Ven-Tel Plastics Corp. is in the midst of a major expansion that will add 13 machines and create as many as 30 new jobs this year.
Largo, Fla.-based Ven-Tel will spend $2.5 million on the project, which will include the purchase of 13 machines from a medical customer that is closing its own in-house molding operation, President Edward Venner said in a Jan. 28 phone interview.
Venner declined to identify the customer, but said all of the machines are less than 5 years old — with some only 2 or 3 years old — and all have been well-maintained.
Ven-Tel is seeing major growth in medical and pharmaceutical, which accounts for about 60 percent of its overall sales. The firm's medical/pharmaceutical products include caps and closures. Growth from that market helped lift Ven-Tel's 2010 sales 27 percent to $7.1 million. Sales for 2011 are expected to be $9 million to $10 million, increasing to $12 million in 2012. The firm recently signed a four-year contract with a major medical customer, Venner said.
Growth for 2011 is a continuation of 2010, when Ven-Tel added four new Nissei molding machines to replace older equipment. The firm also installed an ISO Class 8 clean room, three new computer numerically controlled vertical machining centers and several related pieces of machinery in 2010.
The additional machines will fill up most of the remaining space at Ven-Tel's 107,000-square-foot facility, Venner said, and will bring its machine total to 49. The 28-year-old firm employs 80, with 25-30 new jobs expected to be added by midyear.
Ven-Tel also makes Smart Cap-brand plastic caps and Smart Bolt-brand plastic bolts. Smart Caps cover bolts that attach toilets to floors. The cap screws on to a threaded base and is guaranteed to stay in place. Smart Bolts are glass-filled nylon bolts used to seat toilets to flanges.
Ven-Tel is owned by Venner's wife, Catherine, who also serves as the firm's CEO.