An Illinois custom injection molding operation will be auctioned off after its owner decided to close the business.
PPIL LLC of Lockport, Ill., is scheduled to close on Nov. 11, according to a notice filed with the state of Illinois by its owner Xten Industries LLC. Xten acquired the Lockport plant, formerly named Paramount Plastics LLC, in May 2012.
“The subsidiary experienced significant losses in the past few years,” explained Xten CEO and co-founder Matthew Davidson in an Oct. 16 phone interview. “We tried to restructure it and sell it, but we decided to shut it down.”
When Xten bought Paramount it said at the time it was interested in its large-tonnage injection press capabilities and staff expertise.
Davidson declined to go into details about PPIL's problems. A search of federal records showed its predecessor company Paramount was tangled in numerous lawsuits with suppliers and other parties for more than 20 years ending in 2011. Neither Paramount nor PPIL were listed for recent legal activity on the Pacer website.
Davidson said PPIL entered into an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors. Patrick Cavanaugh, a partner in High Ridge Partners Inc. of Chicago, was assigned trustee. The auction is scheduled to be held in Lockport on or about Dec. 4 by Branford Group of Branford, Conn.
About 82 Lockport workers will be affected by the closure next month.
Davidson said Xten's head office and plant in Kenosha, Wis., are operating normally.
The 2012 purchase of Paramount, located about 85 miles south of Kenosha, helped vault Xten's sales by 166 percent in 2013, a climb that spurred Inc. magazine to name the firm as one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States.
Xten logged sales of $48.5 million in 2013 according to Plastics News' injection molding survey. Its Kenosha and Lockport facilities together employed 223 and ran 57 injection presses, the firm stated in the survey. It molds a range of engineering and commodity resins for diverse markets.
