Michiana Rotational Molding LLC., a Michigan-based rotational molding company based in Constantine, has expanded its facility to create more production space and added a new Rotoline rotomolding machine.
This is the company's second expansion within the last five years.
The company has added 35,000 square feet, bringing its facility up to 135,000 square feet and six rotational molding machines.
"Some of the expansion is to prepare for business that we've just been awarded, and some of it is for future business that we're working on — hoping to get — but not secured yet," said Todd Outman, chief operating officer.
The expansion will mostly be for material storage and flow due to the additional machine taking up existing space.
Michiana Rotational Molding will hire 18 new employees to operate the new machine and secondary services.
The new machine is the Rotoline Carrossel CR 3.60 with four arms, an oven for heating plastic resin to be shaped and molded, pre-cooling and cooling stations and standby to improve productivity.
The company said the expansion will increase productivity by 35 percent.
"We have goals to expand organically, [and] potentially through acquisitions as well, but our first priority is supporting our current customer base," said Outman. "We're always looking for things that help diversify us. We're pretty heavy in RV and marine right now and then we also have several new and pending customers that allow us to diversify our company."
Michiana Rotational Molding also has customers in the material handling, home and garden, and agricultural sectors. Its secondary services include assembly, quality testing, mold repair, finishing and delivery service for local customers.