The Plastic Packaging plant in Aberdeen celebrated the opening of its new warehouse facility with a ribbon cutting Friday. The expansion represents a total investment of $5 million and 24 additional jobs over the next three years. The plant currently employs about 20 people.
The new warehouse facility frees up room in the manufacturing building for the business to expand and add new machines to the former Polythin Films building.
Plastic Packaging also has plants in Hickory and Forest Hills.
The average customer wouldn’t necessarily come across much plastic made at the Plastic Packaging plant in Aberdeen but it’s rather important behind the scenes. For example, if a customer purchases a Coke at McDonald’s, there is a good chance that the cup arrived at the restaurant packaged in a plastic sleeve made in the plant here, said Roy Snipes, plant manager.
“It’s used in bakeries,” Snipes said. “It’s more institutional. ... For the regular customer, chances are you wouldn’t see some of our products.”
Plastic Packaging acquired Polythin Films just about two years ago.
The plant, on Anderson Street in Aberdeen, is just down the road from the empty Intek building, runs 24 hours a day. Although it’s visible from N.C. 5, Snipes said that many people have no idea what goes on in the building.
“It’s amazing what comes out of this [local manufacturing] community,” Snipes said. “People don’t realize.”
Ray Ogden, president of Moore County Partners in Progress, told Snipes, “I worked down the road for seven years, and I never had any idea what you did here.” Ogden is the former plant manager at Intek.
Ogden was there for the ribbon cutting. In addition, many of Moore County’s public figures were in attendance. There were several representatives from Aberdeen, Fred Hobbs of Hobbs, Upchurch and Associates and County Commissioner David Cummings on hand to celebrate with the Plastic Packaging board of directors.
Ogden, who believes that small or niche manufacturing is one of the best ways for Moore County to grow jobs, said this is one of the first manufacturing expansions in the county for several years.
“We’re thrilled they decided to expand their business here,” he said.
The new warehouse space has already allowed the company to add one additional plastic making machine.
Each machine is about three stories tall. It creates the plastic film by beginning with a drop of resin that it heats in excess of 400 degrees and creates a bubble by forcing air into the heated resin. The bubble — about 4 feet wide — shoots up to the top of the machine where it is then flattened into a sheet of plastic.
The plastic winds through several bars, making it look like a gigantic film projector until it is collected on spools at the bottom of the machine.
“It’s an amazing process,” Snipes said. “It’s not real difficult, there are just a lot of real little things you have to do.”
The new warehouse is already stocked high with spools of plastic ready to be shipped out.
Moore County and Aberdeen provided incentives to the business. Aberdeen pledged $30,000, and the county contributed $39,000, both to be paid after the investment by the company is completed and after the jobs are created, Ogden said.
According to Snipes, the business began selling mostly to textile companies that used the plastic to package yarn. The customers wanted the thinnest plastic that the company could provide, which is what put the “thin” in Polythin, Snipes said.
As the textile industry began to decline, so did the plant’s business. Snipes said that business has come back and is in fact booming thanks to the company’s ability to find new customers, specifically in the food packaging industry.
“No matter how hard times are,” Snipes said, “people are going to eat.”
Matthew Moriarty may be reached at 693-2479 or by e-mail at moriarty@thepilot.com.
