Sunco Plastics Inc. is adding a proprietary line of plastic food storage and beverage ware items with the recent acquisition of certain assets from Frye International Corp. of Longview, Texas.
The assets include molds, patents and trademarks, inventory and the domain name for Frye's website. All of the items are being moved to Sunco's production facility in Medley, Fla.
“I'm thrilled that customers that have been buying our brands will still be able to do that in the future,” said Bud Frye, owner of Frye International, who at age 78 is retiring.
He said many of Frye's molds were sold in a two-day auction in September, but he decided to keep the heart of the Fresh Keeper, Monterrey and Lamarle lines together to sell in a group.
No purchase price was disclosed, but he said that the molds and inventory are being loaded on trucks to be shipped to Medley. Sunco does custom molding for the aerospace, electronics, medical equipment, oceanographic and construction industries.
Sunco now will also produce and market the products and have already put a notice on the Frye website.
“We are hoping to grow the market and pick up some other product lines in that segment,” said Sunco President Harold Bailey.
Bailey said his operations manager saw a Plastics News story about Frye's plan to sell to the molds. That led him to seek out Frye and they worked out the deal. Bailey said that he is excited about the opportunity to enter the consumer products market.
He said that they will be marketing the products as “Made in the USA.”
Sunco occupies part of a 300,000 square foot building with Lawson Industries Inc., a maker of aluminum windows and doors.
Sunco has been a custom molder since the 1960s. It was formerly known as Kendall Plastics. Sunco and Lawson moved to their current home in 2000. The company now runs nine injection molding machines ranging from 30 to 300 tons of clamping force.
The new food storage and beverage are free from bisphenol A and come in translucent colors. They have an airtight seal and offer lid organization.
The design also includes a unique, patented date-set feature to track storage time. A calendar is molded into the rim to show the four weeks of the month.
