Orbis Corp. is buying Hinkle Manufacturing Inc., an Ohio-based maker of custom packaging for automotive parts protection.
Hinkle Manufacturing of Perrysburg, Ohio, also has a thermoforming plant in Dearborn, Mich., “where it produces trays and other plastic components,” Orbis said in a news release.
“The expertise and capabilities of Hinkle Manufacturing expand our portfolio of custom reusable packaging products and bring even more solutions to the evolving and growing needs that we are seeing in the marketplace,” Orbis President Bill Ash said in a statement.
Orbis makes a wide variety of plastic reusable totes, bulk containers, pallets and dunnage.
Hinkle opened in 1962 and was founded by Bob Hinkle. Its product line takes in corrugated plastic sheeting and associated packaging products, including leak-proof boxes for the transportation of fresh food.
Hinkle also acquired Carroll Packaging of Dearborn in 2008. That facility's product line includes thermoformed trays, finger dunnage, extruded die-cut polyethylene tubes and specialized integrated dunnage components, the company said on its website. That company also designs and builds its own prototypes and production tooling.
Terms of the deal were not revealed.
News of the Hinkle acquisition follows the recent opening of a new design and prototyping center in Spartanburg, S.C., by Orbis.
The OrbiShield Design Center brings the company closer to customers in the Southeast, including automobile manufacturers and their parts suppliers. That design center allows customers to gain a hands-on understanding of how their parts and products will interact with Orbis reusable packaging.
Hinkle has a total of 125 workers.