Plastics Machinery Group buys steel fabricator, expanding

Solon, Ohio — Plastics Machinery Group, which buys and sells plastics equipment, is moving its machinery from a Cleveland-area warehouse into a steel fabricating plant, giving PMG more space and the ability to run machines, President and CEO Donald Kruschke said.

Solon-based Plastics Machinery Group bought Loveman Steel Corp. in nearby Bedford Heights, Ohio, at the end of last year. Now PMG is moving its machinery from the company's current warehouse in Berea, Ohio, which Kruschke said is "very, very tight" on space.

"It's packed," he said. "Basically standing room only."

Buying Loveman Steel is a major upgrade — 72,000 square feet, with six big overhead cranes and high ceilings. A big plus: an electrical system with 2,500 amps, which will enable PMG to run machines for prospective buyers in a showroom environment.

The 15,000-square-foot Berea warehouse lacks adequate power to run industrial equipment, and it does not have cranes. PMG had to buy special forklifts to move equipment in the cramped space, Kruschke said. And when someone from PMG wanted to show a piece of equipment, it turned into a half-day event, and a 30-mile drive each way. Once a machine is sold, that's more time.

"We've got to be there when trucks show up. And it's another half day. If the trucks are late, it's a full day," he said.

"So that was a massive, colossal waste of time," Kruschke said. PMG also has warehoused some machines on the West Coast.

Now all the equipment will be housed just three miles away in Bedford Heights at the operation, now called Loveman Steel and Fab. PMG is investing about $2 million to paint the floors, demolish the old Loveman Steel offices and build a new larger office, with an open setup for employees, where the Solon operation will relocate.

Kruschke said a showroom, with the ability to demonstrate running equipment, marks an important milestone for Plastics Machinery Group. "This is what I've dreamed about. This has been my goal for a very long time," he said.

Kruschke outlined the expansion plans in a May 4 interview in Solon and Bedford Heights. Some big pieces of plastics machinery were already in place, including a new Sencorp 2500 Ultra thermoforming machine, a used Brown thermoformer still in the crate used to ship it from Italy, a Lyle thermoformer, a sheet winder and a big Sterling Dual 8 accumulator-head blow molding machine.

Kruschke said PMG has about $4 million to $5 million worth of inventory in its possession. PMG sells used injection molding presses, thermoformers, blow molders, extruders, rotational molding machines and grinders and shredders, as well as new machinery.

"What we are trying to do for Plastics Machinery Group is to improve our quality," he said.

"We can't always time the market. There are customers that just want the equipment off their floor, and we buy it. And we bring it over to our facility, where we now can hook up the machines and show that they do run."

After visiting countless industrial buildings, Kruschke said he was impressed with Loveman Steel, an old-line, family-owned fabricating company that started in the 1930s. Rob Loveman, the fabricator's executive vice president, now has an office at PMG in Solon.

The company went into receivership in the summer of 2015. But Kruschke said he didn't know that until after his first tour.

"I have been looking for a building for several years and came across this one. It has everything I needed. It was the easiest, quickest walkthrough I've ever done," he said.

He declined to disclose the purchase price.

Kruschke gets excited when he shows people around Loveman Steel. The company, which employs 11, fabricates thick pieces of steel into large components for the construction industry and steel mills, including annealing ovens, the annealing covers and separator plates.

Loveman Steel also makes big safety boxes to support trenches to protect workers.

Rob Campbell, a 26-year Loveman veteran, said the company also makes rescue equipment — including a custom-built man-cage, fabricated and shipped in a hurry and used to pull out nine coal miners trapped underground in the 2002 Quecreek Mine in western Pennsylvania.

Kruschke named Campbell, who was Loveman Steel's maintenance manager, the chief operating officer. Campbell, an electrician who has started up some of the plastic machinery, said he is happy to learn skills to serve the plastics industry.

He already has faced a major challenge: moving around the massive processing equipment and piles of heavy steel sheets — one sheet at a time, using the cranes — so the reinforced concrete floors can be painted.

Kruschke said meeting the people only strengthened his interest in buying the fabricator.

"You could just tell [Campbell] was salt of the Earth and a good person. You could just feel a comfort and a trust with him," he said.

Kruschke will run PMG and Loveman Steel and Fab separately. The two companies won't have much overlap, but he said Loveman could make mezzanine structures that go above plastics machinery lines to support air compressors, dryers, blenders and other auxiliary equipment.

Now Kruschke wants to get Loveman profitable.

"I'm basically taking our model that we do here, at Plastics Machinery Group, and applying it to them," Kruschke said. "Some of their accounts have not been contacted, or cultivated over the years, like we do here."