By acquiring a competitor and refurbishing its building, Montrose Molders Corp. has been able to boost its sales by 50 percent in the last three years.
“The customers of our former competitor were really similar to ours in the point of purchase industry so we were able to realize a lot of synergies by customer base and we already knew how to serve them,” said Brendan Wilson, vice president of operations at Piscataway, N.J.-based Montrose during a phone interview.
He said the steps taken in the last three years have strengthened the company's standing as custom molder and also paved the way for future growth.
Now, the company with 230 employees is operating out of a modern 65,000-square-foot building with 50 injection molding machines ranging from 50 to 1,000 tons. They added a 600 ton Nissei machine last fall.
The company also acquired a 60,000-square-foot building about 1½ miles away that it uses for warehousing, assembly and mold storage.
Wilson said that in 2012 they were leasing a site in South Plainfield, N.J., but were searching for a building that they could own themselves.
“When the opportunity arose to acquire a competitor, we jumped on it. We bought their building and in the process of acquiring them, fully renovated the building,” he said.
Montrose Molders purchased the assets of Design and Molding Services in 2011, and then spent much of the first half of 2012 renovating the facility.
Wilson said it spent about $1.5 million to install a closed loop cooling system, add a new material handling system hooked to five silos, put up two cranes, upgraded the power system and renovated the offices. Then, they combined operations.
He said that the move was only five miles but took a tremendous amount of effort and planning. In 2013, it moved 37 presses and two silos. Montrose did it without cutting any employees or losing any customers.
Wilson said the larger tonnage machines had to be moved as two parts.
The company also acquired Plastic Monofil, a mattress corner guard molder, and moved that firm's machines into the newly renovated building.
Now, Montrose Molders is planning to add 30,000 square feet to its warehouse in the next 12-18 months.
So, a company that was founded in 1966 and became a Plastics News finalist for 2009 Processor of the Year has taken giant steps to build an even stronger base for its future.
