Custom injection molder GI Plastek Wolfeboro LLC recently broke ground on a $3 million project to add 35,000 square feet to its Wolfeboro, N.H., facility. The expansion will allow the company to boost its manufacturing, add warehouse space and provide room for further growth.
“We're growing in manufacturing with molding and some value-added services like assembly, and we really needed some room for warehousing for some customer requirements,” said Rick Collopy, vice president of sales and business development, in a telephone interview.
The company is expanding both the front and rear of its existing 56,000 square foot building. The project is scheduled to be finished by February.
Collopy said the project has been in the planning phase for more than a year, and that the company started by implementing a lean manufacturing course. Many of those principles will be used to make the new building more efficient.
The project also will allow the company to consolidate its warehouse space, which had been leased offsite.
The new setup will have receiving docks at one end, a horseshoe pattern manufacturing area and shipping docks at the other end. It will also have 30 foot ceilings to accommodate a crane system.
GI Plastek specializes in medium and large parts. It has 12 injection molding presses, ranging from 110 to 1,574 tons, and 96 employees.
Collopy said that sales are about $20 million and expectations will rise in 2014.
The company was founded in 1982, but has been growing since private equity firm Wincove Capital of New York, purchased it in 2009.
GI Plastek has carved its niche by offering a wide variety of molding, including gas assist, low pressure structural foam, gas counter-pressure, insert molding and overmolding. It makes parts for industries as varied as healthcare equipment, large medical devices, material handling, recreational sporting goods and construction.
“I am very excited about the opportunities that this expansion will bring and how it will transform the way that we work and how much more competitive we will become,” said President Daniel Mills, in a news release.
The company was formerly known as GI Plastek LP. It was based in Newburyport, Mass., and had another plant in Maryville, Ohio, but it sold those operations and is now based in Wolfeboro.