A Michigan-based maker of plastic labels for the horticulture industry plans a major expansion less than three years after changing hands from a fourth-generation owner.
The 95,000-square-foot facility that MasterTag plans to build adjacent to its production facility and offices near Montague, Mich., will "serve as a hub for advanced production techniques and further product diversification," according to an announcement from Greater Muskegon Economic Development.
The multimillion-dollar expansion will allow MasterTag to introduce new product lines and meet growing customer demands, the economic development organization said. MasterTag expects to complete the expansion by the third quarter of 2026.
MasterTag supplies the horticulture industry with printed labels and tags for plants.
The company began in 1949 when plant grower Harry Weesies reached out to Lou Schmidt, the owner of an injection molding company making fishing bobbers, for help in a better way to identify plants for customers . Most of the horticulture industry relied on wooden stakes that could be marked with pencils.
The plastic tags that grew out of the relationship are printed with growing hints, prices and other key information. MasterTag also makes hanging tags and stakes.
Rick Hughes sold the business to Brea, Calif.-based Avery Products Corp. in 2021, citing a surge in demand during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that drove sales.
Hughes, who had been the fourth-generation owner of MasterTag since 1978, saw a need for more production space and automation to keep pace with the industry. That would have required a roughly $10 million to $20 million investment, he said previously. Being at the later stage of his career, Hughes started looking for a buyer that would support that growth.
Hughes said after the sale to Avery that he had been looking for a buyer that would take a hands-off approach to investment and keep the business local. MasterTag, which had 140 employees at the time of the sale to Avery, has been a pillar in the Montague-Whitehall manufacturing space in West Michigan for decades.
MasterTag operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Avery Products, which is a business unit of Toronto-based CCL Industries Inc., a publicly traded global provider of specialty packaging and labels that recorded $6.64 billion in total sales in 2023.
Avery Products had 2023 sales of $1.03 billion.
The planned expansion "represents a major commitment" by Avery Products "to MasterTag and to the community," Hughes said in a June 15 statement.