An expansion plan for Currier Plastics Inc. to meet demand from the medical market calls for the Auburn, N.Y.-based company to invest $16.4 million at its headquarters site to increase manufacturing and warehouse space, buy equipment and hire 32 more employees.
Currier officials first talked about investing $10 million into a three-year expansion plan in May 2018. However, an application submitted for a $2.5 million state grant seeks support for a $16.4 million project that includes the addition of a building for processing and warehousing products.
Founded in 1982, Currier provides blow molding and injection molding to the medical, health, beauty, food, beverage and electronics markets.
"Currier Plastics has completed assessments in various medical market segments that showed strong indication that our value proposition [is] of significant value to medical applications," according to the company's projection description.
The application, which was made to a state program offering $750 million of grants and tax breaks, is part of a $21 million request from the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council to support 30 different projects that will create nearly 600 jobs.
In the medical industry, Currier specializes in closures and containers for reagent packaging, such as bottles, tubes and trays for intravenous drug and pharmaceutical uses.
Reagent-ready packages have special caps, stoppers and container tints to protect stored chemicals from light and radiation that could alter their liquid and powder forms. The specialty packaging is subject to regulations set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Currier touts its in-house capabilities, which also includes design and prototype development services, as a way to tighten supply chain channels for diagnostic and interventional products "that must be consistent without exception."
In May 2018, company officials had said the majority of the expansion would be for clean room space but the project planning was in its early stages then. At the time, the $10 million investment figure included two extrusion blow molding machines and an all-electric injection molding machine.
