Custom injection molder Plastic Products Co. Inc. is adding blow molding to its technologies.
PPC has invested $1.4 million to install an Aoki blow molding line in Greenfield, Tenn., and is in the process of getting it up and running.
“We have a good customer that requires it for us to do a new project,” said PPC Controller Becky Erickson in a July 8 phone interview. She said it will blow mold children's consumer products but she could provide no more detail.
PPC, based in Lindstrom, Minn., runs eight injection molding plants in the United States, including Greenfield, and two sites in Minnesota — its headquarters plant in Lindstrom and in Princeton. Other manufacturing operations are in Kentucky, Illinois, South Carolina and Iowa. The firm recorded North American injection molding sales of $168 million last year and runs 254 injection presses, according to Plastics News data.
Greenfield was chosen because it has available space, Erickson explained. The project should add 35 new jobs. The company employs more than 920. Major markets are appliances, consumer products, automotive and electronics.
PPC has been 100 percent employee owned since 2013, a year-and-a-half before its previous owner, Marlene Smith, died. Marlene Smith was married to PPC's founder, Willard Smith, who steered his business into plastics in 1962. PPC has a sister company, Smith Metal Products, that injection molds metal, Erickson said.