Blown film manufacturer and converter Petoskey Plastics Inc. will invest $29.6 million to expand its manufacturing operations in Morristown, Tenn.
"Our growth has required us to invest in more capital," Executive Vice President Jason Keiswetter said. "We needed to add capacity."
The company is adding "four-plus" production lines during the next few years, each running at different speeds, and adding to capacity for both extrusion and converting, a company spokeswoman told Plastics News May 9.
Eighty-four percent of the $29.6 million will be spent on machinery and auxiliary equipment, she said.
Work will start in the next few weeks to add 30,000 square feet to the existing facility, which specializes in polyethylene film, the company said in a joint news release with Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe.
Morristown's manufacturing space currently is 90,000 square feet. The company has 500,000 square feet of manufacturing combined at its three manufacturing sites, all of them in the U.S.
The Morristown facility has multiple extrusion lines that use recycled materials, as well as converting lines and a four-color offset paper printing press.
Thanks to the investment, Petoskey Plastics will add about 70 jobs to the 106 already in Morristown during the nexy five years. It plans to start work on the expansion this quarter and complete the first phase in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Keiswetter lauded the accommodating local and state governments in Morristown and Tennessee and said the company was "thrilled" by the quality of technicians available to it.
"We look forward to completing the building addition in 2018 and [to] continue to add capacity and jobs within the structure for several years to come."
Headquartered in Petoskey, Mich., Petoskey Plastics describes itself as an environment-focused film, bag and resin manufacturer.
Founded in 1969, it began operations a year later with five employees manning a bag-making machine. In-house polymer recycling was introduced in 1978.
Today the company has 420 employees and supplies the automotive, medical, grocery, retail, packaging and construction industries.
It runs 26 blown film lines overall and has 5,000 customers, including 30 Fortune 500 companies, in 47-plus countries. Its annual sales are about $140 million. It was named Plastics News' 2017 Processor of the Year in March.
