Plastics company plans to expand, hire more workers
Venture Plastics owner Ken Groff looks over a plastic steamer at the Newton Falls plant during an event Friday marking the company's 40th year. The plastic steamer was one of the company's first products.
Venture Plastics employee Joanne Streets examines automotive brackets produced at the Newton Falls plant. The company is celebrating 40 years in business.
Bryon Osborne, VP Marketing & Sales at Venture Plastics in Newton Falls, at the plant Friday. The company is celebrating 40 years in business.
By Don Shilling
NEWTON FALLS — A local plastics company is planning to expand despite the recession that has gripped the nation for more than a year.
Venture Plastics celebrated its successes Friday with an open house for customers and the media at its plant at 4000 Ravenna-Warren Road.
The company, which also has a smaller plant in El Paso, Texas, recorded $16.3 million in sales last year and expects to reach $17 million this year.
The company produces about 1,000 plastic items that are used in cars and appliances and for a variety of other purposes. Among the company’s products are a plastic frame that holds the discharge hose for Whirlpool washers, plastic for the handles of the Yamaha Waverunner and a portable plastic toilet used by the military.
The local plant is adding a new press in two weeks to churn out more plastic parts.
The plant has been so busy that production workers have been on the job seven days a week, but schedules will be cut to six days after about a dozen new workers are brought on next week.
“They’re doing it with smiles because they know what the area is like right now, but we don’t want to burn them out,” said Bryon Osborne, vice president of sales and marketing.
The local plant has 100 production employees who work three shifts and 20 workers in the office. The Texas plant employs about 30.
Osborne said future expansion also is being planned. He said building an addition to the local plant is being considered, but that may not be necessary if some work is shifted to the Texas plant.
Osborne said some of the increase in business stems from an economic recovery that appears to be starting. All of the company’s customers are saying business will be better in the second half of this year than the first and that they expect sales to return to normal in the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year.
Business also has been helped by increased sales to the automotive industry, Osborne said. A year ago, just 10 percent of the company’s sales went to that industry, but that has increased to 22 percent.
Part of the reason for the automotive growth has come from an alliance that Venture Plastics has formed with MVP Plastics, which has closed its plant in Mespotamia, he said. MVP remains a separate company, but Venture Plastics has the rights to produce its products.
Venture Plastics also has taken on more work as other plastics companies have gone out of business, Osborne said. Large automotive suppliers are looking for companies they can depend on to make parts, he said.
“If we bring a customer in and show them our balance sheet and the fact that we’re not under water, they’ll throw business at us,” he said.
Venture Plastcs was formed by Ken Groff and some other partners 40 years ago to produce a clothes steamer. He bought out the partners in 1973.
Groff, 72, a native of Middlefield, remains chief executive of the company but moved to Montana 30 years ago. He said he used to travel back and forth more often, but now he relies on others to run the day-to-day operations.
shilling@vindy.com