Modern Mold & Tool Inc. is under new ownership, but retains the same management team and its employees.
The longtime Pittsfield, Mass.-based moldmaker and molder was purchased in January by Toner Plastics Inc. owner and CEO Steven Graham who noted in a telephone interview, “Our goal is to take the business and expand on it.”
He said that Dave Pedrotti remains president and his staff will continue to run the company.
Modern Mold, which has a history dating back to the 1950s, maintains two buildings totaling about 40,000 square feet in Pittsfield. It has about 50 employees and does mold making and some molding through its Magnus Molding division. It also has a tooling operation in a 10,000-square-foot building in Ormond Beach, Fla.
“Theyíve really built a very strong group of people there — everything from engineering to tooling to parts making,” Graham said.
He noted that Modern Mold's strong medical molding and tool building will be great additions to the family of companies that he runs.
“We definitely like the medical products area,” Graham said. “They have a good reputation in that area and they are very capable in building complex tools. We see a lot of opportunities there.”
Toner Plastics was started by Steven and his wife Jean in 1986 and has grown through its sales of lace products to crafters. The Grahams also own Buick LLC, which does business as The Beadery in Hope Valley, R.I., and S & E Specialty Polymers LLC, a custom compounder in Lunenburg, Mass.
Graham said that The Beadery has a strong market with plastic beads and costume jewelry, and did some tooling but that they would gain from Modern Mold's added tooling ability.
The Beadery's beads and Toner Plastics' crafting products are sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., as well as many specialty stores such as Michael's Companies Inc., and Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. He said that the proprietary business has a significant amount of molds, reaching upward of 500.
“Our goal is to provide as many services and options to customers as we can,” he said.
Now, they will be able to use S& E for compounding resins, Modern Mold for molds and tools, Toner for extrusion and Buick for injection molding.