Numbers show limited growth among most Top 100 injection molders

Must be summer because it is time to look at the numbers behind Plastics News' ranking of the Top 100 North American injection molders. Look to next week's issue for the smaller firms.

There are 102 firms in the top 100 this year, that's due to the three ties at No. 100. The companies have combined molding sales of $29.1 billion. The top 10 alone make up 34 percent of that total revenue. The average sales per firm is $284.7 million, holding steady compared with last year.

The general trend in automotive was down, although a few lucky firms managed to grow. Medical molders also grew. I read many annual reports where company executives explained that their sales increases were due to resin pricing pass-through to customers.

For those firms reporting growth at the top 100, the average increase was 15 percent. The figure rises to 23 percent if you include acquisition-related growth. Six percent of the top 100 executives in this list are women.

Did you know this marks our 30th year publishing this ranking? I took a look at the top firms in our first few years. Some are missing because in the early years we ranked only custom injection molders, but eventually we expanded the universe to include captive and proprietary molders, too.

So, which top 100 firms are still ranked today? Those include: Cascade Engineering Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich.; Evco Plastics Inc. of DeForest, Wis.; Flambeau Inc. of Baraboo, Wis.; Hoffer Plastics Corp. of South Elgin, Ill.; Jones Plastic & Engineering Co. LLC of Jeffersontown, Ky.; Lacks Enterprises Inc. of Grand Rapids, Mich.; Nypro Inc. of Clinton, Mass.; Phillips-Medisize Corp. of Hudson, Wis.; and Plastic Products Co. Inc. of Lindstrom, Minn.

A list of custom injection molders' machine-hour rates in 1989, courtesy of Plastics Technology magazine, showed average rates ranged from $27.21 to $73.21 per hour depending on the size of the machine.

Back in 1989, I was baking muffins at Dunkin' Donuts for minimum wage at $3.80 an hour when I could have been making 10 times that if I'd only had an injection molding machine in my garage.

Want more information? Visit our top 100 ranking online at www.plasticsnews.com/rankings/injection-molders. And watch next week's issue for the rest of this year's injection molders' ranking.

If you work for a company that is missing from the ranking, we would like to include you next time. Just send a note to Hollee Keller at [email protected] or mail your information to Plastics News, P.O. Box 790, Tallmadge, Ohio 44278.

Hollee Keller is the editorial research coordinator for Plastics News. She is author of the blog All Things Data. Follow her on Twitter @holleeKeller.