New owner for Cleveland molder Innovations in Plastic

Market veteran Christopher Miedza has acquired injection molder Innovations in Plastic Inc. and has renamed the business Pharoplast LLC.

Miedza has 30 years of industry experience and also operates two Cleveland-based plastics businesses — tooling supplier Nubuildher and Studio H, a mechanical engineering and design firm. Innovations, which is in East Cleveland, Ohio, had been one of his customers, he said in an interview with Plastics News.

Innovation was founded in 1972 by Charles Hazle, who sold the business to Miedza in August and who continues to work with the firm as a consultant. Hazle started the business with one injection molding machine, which he had bought at an auction, in a rented building and a list of 200 potential customers.

The business — renamed Pharoplast — primarily does contract manufacturing for OEMs, Miedza said. The firm also offers assembly, sonic welding, pad printing, hot stamping and machining services.

Pharoplast occupies 25,000 square feet of a 36,000 square foot building. The firm operates 13 injection molding machines and will have two new Arburg machines installed by July.

Pharoplast mainly molds parts based on polycarbonate, nylon, polybutylene terephthalate and other engineering resins.

Miedza — a parts and tooling design engineer — said that Pharoplast had been focused on short-run production for local customers, but a lot of that work had moved to China. Now, some of it is returning, with the firm already receiving some reshoring work, he said.

Pharoplast employs nine and is looking to add to that total. "Our focus is on growing organically," Miedza said.