Family-owned Pennsylvania thermoformer and injection molder Brentwood Industries Inc. is boosting its production capacity in Mexico by adding a $5.1 million, 100,000-square-foot facility next to the one it opened in the border city of Tijuana five years ago.
Reading, Pa.-based Brentwood plans to open the new facility in August 2024, it said in a June 6 news release. The new plant will serve as a "development center for thermoforming technologies," the company added.
When asked what Brentwood manufactures in Tijuana, company spokesperson and marketing specialist Aubrey Detterline told Plastics News in a June 7 email: "Brentwood will manufacture parts for all product lines."
Asked whether the Tijuana facility is a thermoforming facility exclusively, she replied: "Yes, Tijuana is currently focused on thermoforming only."
"Our go-forward strategy is to increase thermoforming operations as market opportunities present themselves," Detterline added. "For now, planned additional manufacturing processes are limited to assembly and kitting activities."
She said the budget for the new Tijuana project is $5.1 million.
Asked what percentage of Brentwood's total production comes from Tijuana, she replied: "[That's] too complicated for us to answer quickly due to our diversity of forming processes and product lines."
"We've had a lot of success with our initial manufacturing operation in Tijuana, both in terms of customer response and local team capabilities," Walter Banta, Brentwood's vice president of operations, said in the news release.
"Continued investment and increased production capacities to support Brentwood's growing North, Central, and South American customer-base was the next logical step."
When Brentwood opened the Tijuana operation in early 2018, the company said it was its first strategic international expansion dedicated to custom thermoformed medical packaging. Spokesperson Detterline described that operation as a multimillion-dollar investment.
Equipped with a Class 7 clean room, the Tijuana facility supplies customers in Mexico, Central America and the western United States.
In 2018, Brentwood officials described Tijuana, which is across the border from San Diego, as a "major North American medical manufacturing hub."
Founded in 1965, Brentwood also offers injection molding among other manufacturing operations. It makes parts for industrial-grade batteries, manufactures wheelbarrows, attic ventilation systems and marine bulkheads, cooling tower components, storm tank products, interior and exterior parts for heavy-duty truck and mass transit manufacturers, and water and wastewater treatment systems.
Brentwood has seven manufacturing facilities in the United States and four international operations, in India, Thailand, the Czech Republic and Mexico.