Pretium Packaging LLC is expanding operations at two locations and closing another site.
The Chesterfield, Mo.-based plastic container and closures maker said locations in Carrollton, Texas, and Aurora, Ill., will both grow “to support increased customer demand.”
Pretium will expand the Texas site by 52,000 square feet, a move that will allow the company to add PET bottle production lines to existing high density polyethylene container manufacturing.
But the expansion in Texas also means that the company will close its Walterboro, S.C., PET facility and move those lines to Carrollton.
Pretium expects operations to wind down during the summer in Walterboro, a move that will cost about 25 jobs, CEO Paul Kayser said. But the expansion at both other locations will mean the creation of about the same number of jobs between both sites, he said.
Both locations set to expand came to Pretium through the 2016 acquisition for Custom Blow Molding. That deal allowed the company to add to its markets as well as its geographic footprint, Kayser said.
“Part of the interest we had in CBM was to provide us extrusion blow molding capabilities in the Chicago/Midwest area,” he said. “We really didn't have a very strong EBM operation in that part of the world.”
Growing business at both locations is now requiring more room. The Chicago-area plant already has expanded into adjacent, existing space vacated by another company. And the latest growth involves new construction to add another 54,000 square feet.
The expansion in Texas is into an existing, adjacent space.
“This allows us to bring our PET offering to the Texas market,” Kayser said.
He described the Walterboro location as a “satellite” facility that did not have the ability to expand.
“We are going to move that equipment, and in the long term, bring in new equipment [to Carrollton],” he said.
The Texas facility will focus on wide mouth PET containers for sauces, dressings and other applications, but will also take advantage of the company's continued growth in the sports nutrition bottle business. Sports nutrition is already a key market for the Illinois facility.
Reorganizing sites allows Pretium to shorten delivery times and reduce the company's transportation carbon footprint, explained Mark Howell, senior vice president of sales and marketing, in a statement.
“At Pretium, it is all about being close to our customers. The expansion will enable us to produce PET bottles in a facility that is closer to brand owner filling operations,” Howell said in his statement.
The 54,000-square-foot expansion in Aurora is almost complete. The extra space will allow for both additional manufacturing and warehouse space.
“Centrally located in the Midwest, our Aurora plant serves a geographic area where a significant number of filling operations are positioned,” Howell said in his statement. “Our expansion there will provide a solid footprint to help their future growth.”
Pretium is owned by private equity firm Genstar Capital, which also owns Tekni-Plex, a maker of a wide variety of plastics products, including films, packaging, seals, tubing and compounds.
Pretium ranked No. 30 in the most recent Plastics News survey of North American blow molders, with estimated sales of $310 million.