Polymer Contours Inc., a custom injection molder in Allentown, Pa., is moving 1½ miles to a site that dwarfs the company's current incubator home.
Owner and President Tyson Daniels said Polymer Contours will leave its 1,760-square-foot digs in the Allentown Economic Development Corp. business incubator. Last month, Daniels paid $1.3 million for a vacant, 42,000-square-foot restaurant and janitorial supply building that is something of a landmark in the city.
The company has outgrown the incubator site, where space, capacity and power accessibility are limited.
"We are unable to add more machines, automation and/or more people," he said Feb. 28 via email in explaining the move. "I also want the asset."
The company launched in 2009 and Daniels bought it in January 2015. At that time, it had just one customer, one employee and two machines. It has grown to 35 customers, nine employees and four presses.
Daniels plans to double the staff by the time the move takes place, and he has purchased six more machines: two with 200 tons of clamping force, one with 100 tons and three with 80 tons.
"They are sitting, waiting to come online," he added.
He hopes the company will be settled in at the new site in eight months, "but long lead times on electric equipment and materials has me in constant limbo," he admitted.
Polymer Contours will occupy half the building and lease the rest.
"We are bringing it up to code, which should be fairly easy going. It is a beautiful building built by GE in 1958 to service their Black & Decker department, so it was heavily engineered and there aren't any [others] like it. This is also an iconic building for Allentown and very well-known," he said.
Part of his admiration for the building might stem from his background in the restaurant business. Before getting into plastics, Daniels was operations director for a local fast-food franchisee with seven stores.
If everything goes according to plan, Daniels said he expects to double Polymer Contour's sales in 2022 to $3 million.
The company serves a variety of markets, making everything from medical products and storage containers to mailbox flags and point-of-purchase displays. It also has customers in the firearms, packaging and refrigeration industries. It also designs and builds molds.