Kickstart: Expanding to keep up with the wipes market

The demand for sanitizing wipes remains strong, and it continues to outpace the supply of packaging.

With standard cannisters in short supply, we've all seen a lot of alternatives such as bulk packaging in buckets or flexible packs, but there's still a strong desire for traditional containers.

That demand is prompting the third plant expansion by Comar LLC this year. The injection molder and blow molder announced Nov. 10 that it is moving into a 160,000-square-foot plant in West Bend, Wis., to mold containers for wipes. The site is larger than its existing factory in the area.

"The pandemic affecting our society has brought an unprecedented surge in demand for Comar's rigid packaging, especially for disinfecting wipes used in hospitals, homes and institutions," CEO Mike Ruggieri said in a news release. "We recognize the critical role our injection molding and blow molding solutions play in delivering essential supplies to the front lines in the battle against COVID-19."

This week, our sister paper Automotive News is celebrating 100 outstanding women in the auto industry. That includes Jennifer Johnson, who is CEO of Kendrick Plastics, an interior parts supplier created late in 2019 when private equity group Green Light Growth Partners LLC bought a Grand Rapids, Mich., plant from Yanfeng Automotive Interiors.

Kendrick has more than 50 injection molding presses, in sizes from 85 to 1,200 tons.

The timing for Kendrick Plastics' creation wasn't great. It was, as Johnson notes, less than three months before the coronavirus pandemic began.

"There are close to 400 employees here," Johnson said. "In the beginning weeks of the pandemic, when the government and public health officials weren't really sure exactly what was happening, those were some very trying days for people, leaders that were responsible for people, and myself included.

"I felt a moral responsibility to keep employees as safe as I could, with not a lot of resources or guidance at the time. It was an economic meltdown as well in the industry with production pausing."

You can read the full profile here.

The future of transportation isn't just a discussion about cars. On Nov. 8, Virgin Hyperloop — a high-speed travel concept from Tesla's Elon Musk with support from billionaire Richard Branson — made its first trip with passengers.

The Hyperloop is hyped up to be a replacement for air travel with a pod carrying up to 28 people traveling in above-ground tubes at up to 600 mph. For plastics composites suppliers, there is a lot of opportunity. An earlier pod used carbon fiber from Toray. Details about the pod tested Nov. 8 weren't released.

I wouldn't book a trip on the Hyperloop yet, though. While there are multiple routes planned around the world, so far there is very little actual infrastructure for it.