EuroPlast Ltd. is getting back to business with the backing of a new investor.
EuroPlast of Endeavor, Wis., went into bankruptcy protection in January 2015 after experiencing problems with molds and equipment used to injection mold caps and closures. The company had entered caps and closures as a new market before the problems, but is ready to get back into that market “now that we have taken care of the issues” associated with the purchased business, said President Harald Zacharias in a phone interview.
“We bit off more than we could chew at that time,” Zacharias explained.
Caps and closures represent the firm's proprietary business. The company also does custom injection molding for electronic/electrical, recreational, small-engine and other markets. Its stake in medical parts molding is supported by a Class 100,000 clean room that it installed in 2009.
EuroPlast runs 18 injection presses with clamping forces ranging from 20 to 650 tons. It also offers secondary services such as sonic and hot-plate welding, heat staking and imprinting. The private company sells to low- and high-volume accounts.
Zacharias said EuroPlast had about 20 employees before the bankruptcy, and he hopes to hire most of the workers back when production resumes in early 2016. It will keep its name and contact information and will continue to run its facilities in Endeavor and Westfield, Wis.
The new investor is James Grafft of Janesville, Wis. Grafft owns Certified Parts Corp., which supplies plastic and metal aftermarket parts for small engines and recreational equipment. Grafft founded the company in 1976 to make hard-to-find parts for out-of-production vehicles such as snowmobiles, personal watercraft and go-karts. It supplies components for such brand names as Bridgestone and Indian motorcycles, Chris Craft and Eska boats, Scorpion, Chaparral and Rupp snowmobiles, and Surf Jet and Wet Bike personal watercraft. It also makes small engines using assets it bought from well-known but defunct businesses.
Zacharias and relatives were the former majority owners of EuroPlast. They established the company in 1985, three years after they founded Apex Mold & Die Corp.