Artemis Plastics honored for growth in Florida

Artemis Plastics LLC, a contract molder of medical and industrial products, is growing business and garnering attention for it.

The company, based in Ocala, Fla., was recognized Feb. 9 by economic development organization GrowFL as a 2018 Florida Company to Watch, an annual statewide competition that celebrates growing second-stage companies headquartered in Florida. Eligible companies must be privately held with between $750,000-$100 million in annual sales and six to 150 full-time employees, among other requirements.

Artemis Plastics was one of 50 companies — and the only injection molder — honored with the award, the company said. The company was nominated by staff with the Ocala/Marion County Chamber & Economic Partnership.

"The recognition was an acknowledgment that we are doing things well and people are taking notice," Artemis Plastics CEO Gary Mishkin said in emailed responses to Plastics News.

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Artemis Plastics is the contract manufacturing arm of Apollo Renal Therapeutics LLC, a company that was created to commercialize Mishkin's hemodialyzer for kidney dialysis. Artemis Plastics was formed in September 2014 when Mishkin, a biomedical engineer, purchased the assets of custom injection molder Clairson Plastics.

"Since several components of our dialyzer are injection molded, this was a good match for the next phase of the dialyzer," Mishkin said. "In addition, the company was contract manufacturing and generating revenues, although they were not profitable."

According to a 2014 report, around 45-50 percent of Clairson's business was in medical molding with the rest in consumer products. The company had posted $10 million in injection molding sales in PN's rankings of North American injection molders, where it landed at No. 321 at the time. Artemis Plastics is listed at No. 430, according to the 2018 ranking.

"After the acquisition, our goal was to strengthen the quality system, expand the contract manufacturing business and instill our culture of quality, collaboration and respect," Mishkin said.

To do so, Mishkin hired Lisa Derrick as quality manager to ensure the company was complying to regulations and requirements set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as well as the International Organization for Standardization.

"The system was good before we took over, but expanding the processes, involving the managers and assigning responsibilities got everyone working together and further improved quality and productivity," he said.

Mishkin also had to address the work culture. When he acquired the assets of Clairson Plastics, Mishkin hired the former company's existing 16 employees at the facility. But Clairson Plastics had been in receivership for several years, he said, causing uncertainty among its workers.

"There were many employees who were not sure if the plant would be open each day they arrived for work," he said. "We had to build trust."

The third step was increasing the top line and bottom line, though Mishkin said he expected to lose money early on. Artemis Plastics posted a "sizeable loss" in 2015 — its first full year in business — but turned a small profit in 2016, he said.

Since 2014, Mishkin said the company has seen double-digit growth in sales, and it is now profitable and cash-flow positive.

"Our strategy of quality and respect certainly empowered the team to deliver. We also challenged our managers to expand our capabilities and bring projects in-house that would have been outsourced," Mishkin said.

For 2018, the company generated nearly $4 million in sales. Mishkin said he is projecting sales for 2019 to reach just under $5 million, as the company prepares to take its proprietary products such as the dialyzer to market.

Aside from growing sales, Artemis Plastics is investing in more space and equipment to better serve customers.

The company recently purchased a 1,200-ton injection molding machine and auxiliary equipment for more than $300,000. The press — the company's largest yet — is expected to be installed by the end of February.

"We are very careful to invest in projects that we know will provide a double-digit return," Mishkin said. "We have one customer that required this larger press and has already placed an order for product."

Mishkin said the customer is covering the debt financing, too.

Artemis Plastics, which operates out of a 32,000-square-foot facility on 4 acres, currently has 12 injection presses in operation from 17-720 tons. All but one of the presses are horizontal. The company has a 50-ton vertical press that is routinely used for overmolding projects.

In addition to the 1,200-ton press that is on its way, the company is in the process of installing a 110-ton press and is considering a 30-ton press for a specific project.

Artemis Plastics is also finalizing plans and adding another 600-square-foot Class 8 clean room for device assembly and packaging. Its current clean room is approximately 400 square feet. The company has two other environmentally controlled rooms that are roughly 1,000 square feet.

Artemis Plastics has 27 full-time employees in Ocala, with plans to add up to three employees by the end of April.