Düsseldorf, Germany — Twelve weeks after its acquisition by two private equity groups, Uniloy Inc. has resumed blow molding operations in Magenta, Italy, and officials are rebuilding an independent organization.
The 56-year-old Uniloy had been a business unit of Milacron Holdings Corp. for 21 years before being sold for almost $51.9 million to Osgood Capital and Cyprium Investment Partners.
Milacron had shuttered the facility in Italy in 2015 and consolidated European assembly of blow molding machines in the Czech Republic. However, Uniloy CEO Brian Marston is at K 2019 to tell the industry that setup of the 100,000-square-foot Magenta facility is complete.
"The Czech Republic facility had announced a discontinuation of machine assembly, so it's important that our customers know that we restarted in Italy," Marston said. "We have completed the relocation of parts inventory and assets, and we have resumed machinery assembly as well. We're back by popular demand."
Uniloy is also continuing operations in Tecumseh, Mich., which will be the company headquarters, and Ahmedabad, India. The three locations give the company a global presence.
In Michigan, the new owners have upgraded infrastructure for chillers, power and overhead cranes for assembly. In addition, they are building out a 30,000-square-foot facility to handle incoming parts for machines and aftermarket parts for customers.
"Our staff is still with us, so the experience is there and the engineering and the aftermarket management," Marston said. "There isn't too much work that has to be done in terms of training and restarting."
The company's goal is for all three of its locations to become full technical centers with assembly, parts distribution, engineering, sales and service.
"The business has been operated in a siloed fashion prior," Marston said. "This is not the strategy to move forward. Now that we're focused solely on blow molding, without any external business interference, we will globalize our operation commercially, technologically, and organizationally."
Uniloy is ready to support the 4,000 installed machines around the world.
"This month we shipped a maintenance package for a machine that's 40 years old," Marston said. "These are expensive assets and we will continue to support them."
Uniloy specializes in machinery for dairy bottles but serves all packaging markets, including food, beverage, consumer goods, cosmetics, medical and pharmaceutical.
Uniloy offers four machinery platforms: reciprocating, injection blow, shuttle and industrial.
"The customer can tell us what they want to buy. We don't tell them what we want to sell," Marston said.
"Additionally, we will be an innovator supportive of the entire plastics industry's sustainability objectives," Marston said. "Whether it's a biomaterial or recycled content, we will be a leader in this area."
Uniloy has just shy of 200 employees, not including those under technical service agreements with Milacron for the transition period.
