Alliance buys Molding Dynamics' assets
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Injection molder and tooling manufacturer Alliance Precision Plastics Corp. acquired the assets of Molding Dynamics Inc., according to a news release from North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue.
Brad Scott, president of Alliance, said the company took possession the evening of Feb. 27 and the facility was up and running as of that date.
The geographically strategic acquisition includes Molding Dynamics' Spindale, N.C., facility and its equipment. Scott said Alliance will continue injection molding and toolmaking, but will add more secondary and value-added capabilities in time.
“We want to apply engineering support and knowledge on secondaries,” Scott said. “We're very excited. [Molding Dynamics] is very similar to us and that's why we did the deal.”
Alliance chose the North Carolina location to be closer to customers in the southeast.
Rochester-based Alliance intends to create 54 jobs with a substantial investment during the next three years. A $48,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund, a financial assistance plan through local governments, contributed to the project as well.
The injection molder currently occupies two facilities, both in Rochester.
Amcor shuttering Kan. PET bottle plant
ANN ARBOR, MICH. — Amcor Ltd. plans to close its Lenexa, Kan., plant by the end of June, a spokeswoman confirmed.
The facility makes PET bottles for carbonated soft drinks and water. Fifty-three employees will be laid off from the plant but the company is offering employment at other Amcor operations, Shelley Steele said in a telephone interview.
“It's because some of our customers moved to self-manufacturing,” Steele said. Amcor runs 27 other rigid packaging plants in the United States, Steele said from Amcor Rigid Plastics' office in Ann Arbor.
“We actively will help employees with outsourcing and severance packages,” Steele said. “We will offer them positions in other plants.”
The Lenexa operation is 34 years old. Amcor Ltd. is based in Melbourne, Australia.
ZL to build $3.5M Lenexa, Kan., facility
LENEXA, KAN. — ZL Engineering Plastics Inc. plans to build a 10,000-square-foot facility in Lenexa, according to a report in Kansas City Business Journal.
The firm will spend $3.5 million on the project, which includes extrusion capability. ZL supplies extruded and cast engineering and high-performance polymers that are then machined by customers into specific shapes.
ZL will open the new facility by August and eventually employ 15 there. It now has six employees in Lenexa.
“The state of Kansas has gone out of their way to enable our company to put deep roots in North America,” the report quoted from a statement attributed to ZL Engineering President Patrick Pheffer. “With lead times cut by 60 percent, the new facility will enable ZL Engineering Plastics to truly compete and grow our market share.”
Pheffer and other officials were not available for comment. ZL is a subsidiary of Zell-Metall GmbH of Kaprun, Austria.
MBC plans $4.1M expansion at Ind. site
INDIANAPOLIS — MBC Group Inc., a packaging thermoformer and printed materials manufacturer, will add a $4.1 million expansion to its Brookville, Ind., plant.
The Indianapolis-based company will add four new thermoforming lines to the 30,000-square-foot facility, and expand its digital printing operations, which are currently outsourced, to include printing, kitting and fulfillment for point-of-purchase materials, according to a Feb. 29 news release.
With the expansion, MBC plans to create 101 new jobs by 2014. The company has already begun hiring additional management and light-industrial associates, and plans to add more than 20 new employees by the end of the year, according to the release.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. said it offered the company up to $625,000 in performance-based conditional tax credits and up to $100,000 in training grants based on MBC's job-creation plans.
