Injection molder Iris USA Inc. has completed a $6.1 million expansion at its plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wis.
The expansion is expected to create 90 jobs over the next three years, according to a July 20 news release from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.
WEDC is supporting the project with up to $350,000 in state income tax credits over the next three years. The amount of tax credits Iris will receive is contingent upon the number of jobs created.
The expansion will allow Surpise, Ariz.-based Iris to expand production of such items as storage boxes and containers and to add production of disposable face masks as well.
The project includes 26 new injection molding machines as well as renovations for existing machines. These additions will be phased in over a three-year project period to ramp up face mask production.
Iris also recently began hiring at its new 500,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution site in Hazleton, Pa. Construction on the facility in Hazleton began in 2018, officials said in a news release.
The site has 26 injection molding machines, with plans to add another 16 by the end of the year. Iris invested $80 million in the Hazleton project, which is the firm's first plant on the U.S. East Coast.
In a recent Plastics News ranking, Iris ranked as North America's 61st-largest injection molder, with annual sales estimated at $158 million. Iris USA is a unit of Japanese conglomerate Iris Ohyama Inc.