Mold maker Big 3 marks its growth at K 2022

Mold maker Big 3 Precision Products Inc. sees K 2022 as something of a coming out party.

The U.S. company has added two other mold making operations in the last three years, giving itself a larger global footprint and adding technologies and capacities around the blow molding markets it serves.

"The world's gotten smaller — we like to think we've got a global reach," said Duncan Hardy, global sales manager for the Centralia, Ill.-based firm. "We'll be able to, for the first time, represent all of our businesses in one place."

Jokingly, he added: "We don't know what to expect."

Since 2019, the company acquired Hallink Moulds Inc., a Canadian maker of stretch blow molds, and Associated Toolmakers Ltd., a manufacturer of injection molds in the United Kingdom. It now gives Big 3 capabilities in tool building for injection blow molding, injection stretch blow molding, stretch blow molding and injection molding.

Hardy said the idea is for Big 3 to be able to offer more complete mold building around packaging, from a bottle manufactured with any of the blow molding processing to injection molded components like caps.

"If somebody came from a very global customer like Amcor, we're a one-stop shop," he said. "I think what's important is we now have four different resources. The idea is that eventually each facility will be able to help everybody else out."

Big 3 itself also changed hands right before the last K show, when diversified industrial manufacturer Eastern Co., in Naugatuck, Conn., bought the mold maker in September 2019 for $81.7 million from TVV Capital. The acquisition included both Big 3's mold making unit and a division that makes returnable plastic and metal packaging.

Publicly traded Eastern, which reported $246.5 million in sales last year, also has subsidiaries that make accessories for commercial trucks and hardware for security applications.

Hardy said Eastern has a long-term view of Big 3's business.

"They're not a venture capitalist, where they're trying to increase the value and flip it," he said. "They want to grow long term."

A lot of the company's work is in packaging markets, but it also has customers in housewares, sporting goods and industrial and medical components, according to its website.

The company's not bringing any particular new technology to K but is hoping that it can find new customers to help with a year that's been more challenging, compared to very strong sales it saw in 2020 and 2021, Hardy said.

"I call it the COVID bounce," he said, describing unexpectedly strong business during the pandemic. "Naturally after having two really good years, things are going to quiet down a bit.

"We're led by customer activity. We don't build a set of molds for no reason," Hardy said. "We need the demand for it. If the converters are quiet, then we're quiet."