Patrick Products adding space, jobs
LEIPSIC, OHIO — Blow molder Patrick Products Inc. plans to add 100,000 square feet to its facility, along with new equipment and jobs, according to Chief Financial Officer Roger Selhorst.
“We've seen some growth in our business and we're getting ready for future business,” Selhorst said in a telephone interview.
The project is expected to be completed by late spring or early summer. The new space will be used for warehousing, but will allow the company to convert 25,000 square feet of existing warehouse space for manufacturing, Selhorst said. The company will add three or four new lines and about 30 jobs.
Leipsic-based Patrick Products currently runs 18 lines in its 300,000-square-foot facility. It employs 140 and has been in business for 12 years.
The company makes high density polyethylene bottles ranging from 8 ounces to 1 gallon in size. Its containers are used for janitorial supplies, household, chemical, food and automotive products.
The Ohio Tax Authority recently approved a 45 percent, five-year tax credit to help with the planned expansion.
Rapra shutting down US office Dec. 31
HUDSON, OHIO — Rapra Ltd. U.S. will close its doors Dec. 31, less than two years after opening its office in Hudson.
In its brief existence, Rapra Ltd. U.S. was a nonprofit economic development group for the polymer industry. Group officials said in a Nov. 16 news release that the closing is the result of “an unexpected loss of funding.”
The decision to close “was made with deep regret at the loss of our ability to serve as a catalyst of private economic development and [as an] implementation arm of so many groups.”
Most recently, Rapra Ltd. U.S. hosted a Global Polymer Innovation Expo, held Aug. 26-29 in Columbus, Ohio. The event featured 35 exhibitors.
In the release, Rapra Ltd. U.S. President Laura Woods said the group “will live on in many ways,” including the collaborations, business deals, innovations and conference networking that it helped to create.
The group was part of Rapra Ltd., a global plastics and rubber research organization based in Telford, England.
Equipment maker NRT opens China center
BEIJING — U.S. recycling equipment maker National Recovery Technologies Inc. has opened a demonstration center in China, expanding its presence in what the company said is its largest export market.
Nashville, Tenn.-based NRT makes optical-sorting equipment, and said the demonstration center in Suzhou, China, will be led by sales manager Kevin Lu.
“We plan to be an integral part of Chinese recycling efforts for years to come,” NRT President Matthias Erdmannsdoerfer said in a statement.
The company also said it picked up an award for its recycling sorting technologies from the China Scrap Plastics Association at the group's early November conference in Beijing.
Sigma adds cast film line at Ky. plant
LYNDHURST, N.J. — Sigma Plastics Group will install a new Gloucester Engineering nine-up cast film line at its Shelbyville, Ky., facility.
The new line will allow Lyndhurst-based Sigma to produce up to nine rolls of stretch film at a time and each roll can be as wide as 20 inches. It is a turnkey production cell that includes an Extrol control system with Automatic Profile Control Software, Contracool extruders and auxiliaries, dies, a casting unit, infrared thickness gauge, edge-trim station and winder.
The new line is scheduled to be delivered to Sigma in June.
“We are busy expanding and the new cast film line is required to support our growth,” said Per Nylen, executive vice president of Sigma Stretch Film, in a news release.
Gloucester President Carl Johnson said the supplier has been working with Sigma Stretch Film since 1993.
Sigma ranks No. 2, with $2.4 billion in sales, in the 2012 Plastics News North American Film and Sheet Manufacturers rankings. It has 38 facilities with more than 450 extruders.
The company said it runs more than 1.7 billion pounds of material a year.
