Plastics News has named five finalists for the 2021 Processor of the Year award: Comar LLC, MMI Engineered Solutions Inc., Proto Labs Inc., PTI Engineered Plastics Inc. and Teel Plastics LLC.
Three of the companies — Comar, MMI and PTI — are repeat finalists.
All were considered essential businesses and stayed open through the pandemic. In fact, all five companies played important roles in battling COVID-19, making personal protective equipment and important medical products.
All five companies are injection molders but also have significant additional plastics operations. Comar and MMI also do blow molding. Both MMI and PTI have large tooling operations. Teel is well known for its custom extrusion business; injection molding is a newer area of specialization.
Proto Labs, which in official messaging is known as Protolabs, started as an injection molder, but it is now known as a prototyping and digital manufacturing specialist, with mold making and 3D printing operations.
Processor of the Year candidates are judged on seven criteria: financial performance, quality, customer relations, employee relations, environmental performance, industry/public service and technological innovation.
Plastics News editors will visit all the finalists in person. All five finalists will be honored at the 2022 Executive Forum, scheduled for March 21-23 in Naples, Fla.
The winner will be profiled in the April 4 print edition of PN. The 2021 PN Excellence Award winners will be profiled in the April 11 issue.
The 2020 winner was Plastek Industries Inc., a. packaging molding specialist and mold maker based in Erie, Pa.
Here's a description of each finalist, in alphabetical order: