This week we publish the top 100 North American rotational molders in print. Online we have data on 117 companies with sales of $2.53 billion, that's up 2.8 percent over last year's ranking. Over half, 58.7 percent, are proprietary molders. Custom and captive make up 36.2 and 5.1 percent, respectively. Many firms reported no changes in sales year over year, however, for those that did report growth, 18 percent was the average gain.
Tanks and recreational/sporting goods make up the biggest end markets in rotomolding. This has held true since we debuted this list back in August of 1995, with 75 firms listed and related sales of $899 million. That very first rotational molding ranking put the focus on the craftmanship of this sliver of the plastics industry.
This year's biggest news came from Tank Holding Corp. which came in at number 1 for the fourth time in a row. The firm recently acquired Poly-Mart, WRP Containers and Humboldt Rotational Molding's tank production line. Tank Holding itself was bought by Olympus Partners and in July and the company recently acquired Grupo Rotoplas SAB de CV.
Then as now: We footnoted 5 firms with acquisitions or mergers in this issue. In our first published ranking we ran the headline 'consolidation is rotomolding's hottest trend' outlining 4 major acquisitions shaking up rotomolding's old image as garage-shop molding. We also included the FYI chart (below) on the explosion of the use of polyethylene worldwide in 1994.
In facility news, Custom Roto-Mold Inc. of Benson, Minn. added a plant in Lennox S.D. and work from Cassopolis, Mich. will be integrated into Ameri-Kart's Bristol, Ind., facility.
Fun facts: According to Laerdal Medical Corp.'s website: more than 300 million people have been trained in CPR, most using their Resusci Anne lifelike manikin. Crystal Morris, Owner and President of Gator Cases Inc., was announced as Entrepreneur of The Year 2019 by Ernst & Young.
