Holt, Mich.-based Molded Plastics Industries LLC, a subsidiary of Troy, Mich.-based National Composites, is investing $6.8 million to add a 36,000-square-foot building on 13 acres near its existing facility.
"With the expansion of the production space, we will also be building new offices as well as incorporating new state-of-the-art automation equipment to our production floor," Adam Fenton, CEO of National Composites, told Plastics News in an email.
Expected to be operational in early summer of 2024, Fenton said, the expansion will have two phases of construction, one of which will result in 36 new jobs.
The investment also includes new fiberglass processing equipment and computer numerically controlled work cells.
The company is "unsure at this time" how many additional jobs will come with the second construction phase that is approved but not yet planned, Fenton said.
"We have grown from 50 employees to 450 in four years," he added. "So we do not see our hiring needs slowing down any time soon."
MPI was awarded "several substantial new programs in the health care and electric vehicle markets," a Sept. 11 news release said, "that will require a large amount of production space not available at the company's current operations."
National Composites, which acquired MPI in 2020, is on a "growth trajectory," having also acquired Excel Pattern Works Inc. in Dearborn, Mich., an asset purchase to form Excel Pattern & Tool, and Sunrise Fiberglass LLC in Wyoming, Minn., which designed and produced the first U.S.-made fiberglass luge sleds for the 1992 U.S. Olympics team.
MPI manufactures custom molded fiberglass and thermoplastic products for the electric and specialty vehicle and medical industries.