The final injection molding plant owned by Plainfield Precision Holdings has been sold to a Japanese buyer.
Nissha Printing Co. Ltd. — an industrial conglomerate based in Kyoto — has purchased Plainfield's plant in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, for an undisclosed price. The 150-employee plant makes injection molded parts for the automotive market, specializing in insert and precision molding, two-shot molding, assemblies and pad printing.
Nissha already owns injection molding and tooling firm Eimo Technologies Inc. of Vicksburg, Mich. Nissha's core businesses are in printing and in-mold decorating. The firm operates several plants in Japan, as well as plants in China and Malaysia and a decorating and labeling plant in Massachusetts.
In July, Plainfield sold plants in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and the Dominican Republic to contract manufacturer Cadence Inc. That same month, the firm closed a plant in Plainfield, Ill.
Plainfield CEO Jonathan Soucy now has joined mergers and acquisitions firm Molding Business Services of Florence, Mass., as a partner.
“Plainfield is a story with a good ending,” Soucy said in an interview at the 2015 Plastics News Executive Forum in Lake Las Vegas, Nev. “We had to get over the recession, but we recovered and were able to satisfy our shareholders.”
At its peak, Plainfield operated nine plants and had annual sales of $90 million. Even after its post-recession recovery, the firm had sales of $50 million in 2012, with $40 million of that coming from plastic molding and the rest from metal stamping. Soucy said that one of the ways Plainfield was able to rebound from the recession was by adding medical molding to its core auto business.
In 2004, Soucy and three other senior managers bought injection molding and subassembly firm Pixley Richards Inc. of Plymouth, Mass., from a Dutch holding company. In 2007, Soucy and the other new owners then sold Pixley Richards to Polymer Plainfield Cos. Inc. Soucy had been with Pixley Richards since 1992.
In his new role with MBS, Soucy will work on business deals for mid-sized and small injection molding firms. MBS owner Terry Minnick “reached out to me about a year ago,” Soucy said. “His career looked a lot like mine. [By joining MBS] I get to use my career and not throw it away.
“I had been running a molding company for many years under multiple ownerships,” he added. “That was fun, but it's nice to find something fresh.”
