Stork USA has hired two sales managers and partnered with two businesses to offer service in the United States and representation in Mexico and Columbia.
The subsidiary of Stork Plastics Machinery BV continues to spread its wings after incorporating as a U.S. entity, opening an office outside of Philadelphia and building an inventory of spare parts for the processors that have already invested in its machinery.
Based in Hengelo, Netherlands, Stork manufactures 200- to 2,000-ton injection molding machines with a focus on the packaging market.
Stork isn't displaying at NPE2024 this year, but company officials attended and will seek a space for NPE2027. They said they see a lot of medical and technical molding demonstrations but not machines that pound out parts nonstop for 20 years.
"The technology being used [in Europe] for a lot of packaging, even horticulture, hasn't always been adopted here in the United States," Stork CEO Gert Boers said. "I think there's a real value to bring technology that has been proven in Europe. We're not just bringing injection molding machines but complete turnkey systems with robotics specifically for high-speed packaging."
Stork USA also is bringing on packaging veterans George Kotzeff and Scott Molnar to sell directly in the U.S. and Canada, and it has signed agreements with Valley Group Inc. to provide field service in North America. A new agent will start shortly to represent the company in Mexico and Columbia.
Stork already has a representative in Chile and Argentina.
"We have all the pieces in place to now scale the business," said Benjamin Sutch of Chudleigh Sutch UK Ltd., a Stork distributor.
Currently, Stork sends engineers from Europe to service processors.
"We made the decision to work with a company in North America that works with a lot of other manufacturers so we can provide local service to our customers," Sutch said. "For us, it's a story of continuing to push into the marketplace with people to serve it."