Falcon Plastics Inc. will buy a share of Poly-Cast Plastics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., joining two other U.S. injection molders that use the Chinese operation to serve multinational customers there.
“We're working together as partners in the business. We all own a third, so it is really a team effort,” Jay Bender, president of Brookings, S.D.-based Falcon Plastics, said by telephone.
The Suzhou, China, plant was established in 2006 by Poly-Cast Inc. of Tigand, Ore. Viking Plastics of Corry, Pa., became a partner in 2008.
“We do business with some multinationals, so we have an opportunity. They were looking for a reliable supplier and asked if we could do something,” Bender said.
He met his partners through the Indianapolis-based Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors, and found that though they were based in different regions, they actually had similar philosophies.
Owning a share of the plant in China gives Falcon a chance to address the China market with a plant that's already running. The site has closed-loop process controls and currently supplies the automotive, transportation and medical markets. It has eight injection presses up to 550 tons, and room for a total of 15 presses. Bender expects to add a larger press for a current client.
“I have seen our Suzhou company take great strides forward in previous partnerships. It allows us to draw an even deeper pool of engineering/technical resources and markets/product mix, ultimately diversifying and strengthening our business,” said Jeff Leedom, general manager of Poly-Cast Plastics, in a news release.
Poly-Cast maintains a 60,000-square-foot plant in Oregon making products such as heavy-truck electronics throttle controls, four-wheel-drive hub assemblies, automotive antenna components, needleless injection units and vials for biological indicators.
Viking is a VPI Acquisition Corp. firm and runs a 65,000-square-foot plant in Pennsylvania. It makes custom and proprietary products including sealing and fluid flow components, mobile air-conditioning products, fuel system parts, caps and closures, and high-temperature masking products.
Falcon operates four U.S. plants, two in Brookings, a plant in Madison, S.D., and one in Lexington, Tenn. It does injection and blow molding and thermoforming.
Bender, who owns Falcon with his brother Guy, sister Deani, and brother-in-law Shaun Riedesel, said it does not plan to ship product from China back to the U.S.
The company also recently expanded its Madison operations, adding blow molding equipment that can handle two 15-pound shots at a time.