Córdoba Mexico — Blow molder and injection molder Fischer S.A. de C.V. is expanding again, several hundred miles from its home base in Veracruz state.
The company bought land in the state of Guanajuato and expects to start building its second plant in March, Managing Director Roberto Rodríguez Layún told Plastics News by email Jan. 10.
The land is within the Amistad Chuy María industrial park in the Celaya area, which is at the heart of Guanajuato's mushrooming automotive industry cluster.
Celaya is 332 miles northwest of Córdoba, where Fischer was founded in 1998 and where it made its name initially as a producer of jerry cans for the food, agrochemical and cleaning industries.
Its containers range in size from 1.05-52.8 gallons and include barrier technology for the handling of hazardous materials.
But Rodríguez, who graduated in economics and business administration at Mexico's prestigious Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), has been planning for several years to increase the work the company does for the automotive sector.
Over the years, Fischer has worked for Tier 1 suppliers to automakers General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Volkswagen AG and Mazda Motor Corp., supplying components such as thermostat housings.
In 2016, Fisher said it had invested $2.1 million in new blow molding and injection molding machinery for its Córdoba facility, supplied respectively by Techne Graham Packaging Co. of Bologna, Italy, and Engel Holding GmbH of Schwertberg, Austria.
It also completed the construction of an in-house tool shop at its manufacturing complex.
Fischer was founded as a joint venture between Swiss blow and injection molder Fischer Söhne AG and a group of Mexican investors. It is a wholly owned Mexican company today.