Wilbert Plastic Services Inc. is undergoing some changes that came as part of the $11.6 billion acquisition of its parent company, Alleghany Corp., in 2022 by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
It is now part of a different unit within the Berkshire Hathaway businesses and will have a new leader as Greg Botner plans to step down March 31.
Alleghany subsidiary Alleghany Capital Corp. included thermoformer and injection molder Wilbert Plastic Services Inc. and injection molder Wilbert Funeral Services Inc. The two Wilbert companies, which started out as Wilbert Inc., are no longer related operationally, but maintain business connections and report to the same parent.
As with any companies Berkshire Hathaway enfolds, it's complicated.
Wilbert Funeral Services of Overland, Kan., mainly makes concrete vaults, but in 2022 bought some assets of Carrera Manufacturing: W&M Manufacturing and Pier-Mac Plastics Inc., both of Portland, Ind. It renamed the companies Astral Molding & Finishing, which became part of Wilbert's Astral Caskets division.
AMF, based in Lynn, Ind., makes metal caskets and plastic casket accessories such as handles and decorative items. Astral has 28 injection presses with clamping forces of 110 to 750 tons, as well as 10 vacuum metalizers to plate the plastic parts.
AMF also makes some automotive and consumer products that it sells to retailers and other companies, Astral Caskets President Don Robinson said in a March 23 telephone interview.