M&H Plastics expands Virginia plant
WINCHESTER, VA. — M&H Plastics Ltd. is adding 45,000 square feet to its Winchester plant, an expansion that will add 20 jobs and double the facility's manufacturing capability.
The $6.2 million expansion is the result of increased demand. The company has seen “tremendous” growth in the last two to three years, despite the state of the economy, said sales manager David Long.
Following the expansion, the plant will total 110,000 square feet, employ 80 and have annual capacity of 150 million containers, he said.
The expansion also includes equipment upgrades. The facility houses extrusion blow molding, injection stretch blow molding, in-house silk-screen printing and hot stamping. It largely serves the personal-care industry, but also makes packaging for the automotive and pet-care markets.
M&H has headquarters in Beccles, England. The Winchester plant, the company's first in North America, opened in 2005 and underwent a $2 million expansion in 2009.
Tosca buys Georgia-Pacific container unit
GREEN BAY, WIS. — Tosca Ltd. has acquired the reusable plastic container division of Georgia-Pacific LLC, in a move that will expand its offerings in beverage, dairy and fresh-produce markets.
The acquisition includes facilities in Memphis, Tenn.; Garland, Texas; and King City, Calif.
Tosca said it will continue to operate those facilities and will retain the reusable plastic container division's 170 employees, including its management team.
The business will operate under the Tosca brand.
“We're definitely looking forward to combining these two companies,” Tosca CEO John Frey said.
Tosca supplies reusable containers made of plastic and other materials to customers in the beer, cheese and food markets.
The company offers container rental, wash, repair and reconditioning, and coordinates logistics for its customers, ensuring they have the right containers in the right conditions at the right time, Frey said.
Tosca, based in Green Bay, operates from eight U.S. locations and employs 160.
Georgia-Pacific's reusable plastic container unit is part of the Atlanta-based company's packaging business.
Caplugs parent buys fabricator Shercon
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Protective Industries Inc., which owns Caplugs, a manufacturer of protective plastic products, has partnered with private equity firm Windjammer Capital Investors to buy Shercon Inc.
Cypress, Calif.-based Shercon makes die-cut and molded rubber masking, including caps, plugs and tape used to protect surfaces during industrial finishing processes.
The company dates back to 1946, but has done all its manufacturing in China since 2002, when it opened a plant in Hangzhou.
The deal closed April 30. Terms were not disclosed.
Buffalo-based Caplugs makes caps, plugs, tubing, containers, edge liners, fasteners, netting, and masking products. While Shercon has a distribution center in Louisville, Ky., and specializes in rubber, Caplugs is primarily a plastics processor.
Windjammer Capital is based in Newport Beach, Calif.
Italian concentrate maker opens N.C. site
LONATE CEPPINO, ITALY — Italian color and additive concentrates maker Repi SpA has opened a manufacturing plant in Dallas, N.C.
The 43,000-square-foot plant has almost 7 million pounds of annual capacity for color and black concentrates, officials said in an Aug. 3 news release. The firm, based in Lonate Ceppino, had operated a lab and small blending unit in Charlotte, N.C., since 2004. Repi has sold its products in North America since 1993 through a partnership with distribution firm P.A.T. Products Inc. of Bangor, Maine.
Repi primarily makes products for thermoplastics and polyurethanes. In the United States, the firm sells into numerous PU markets including footwear, rigid and flexible foam, coatings, sprays and composites.
North America represents about 15 percent of Repi's sales total. The firm's sales in the region are growing at a rate of 12 percent per year, officials said.
